


Send Me A Song

by Altiria



Series: Fem Harry Potter/One Piece Soulmate fic's [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, One Piece
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Female Harry Potter, Harry adopts Ace, Minor Pansy Parkinson/Ron Weasley, Shanks and Whitebeard fight for custody of Ace, Singing, Soulmates, They both want him
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2020-04-23 04:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 45,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19143979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altiria/pseuds/Altiria
Summary: Shanks is a pirate, and pirates take any chance they can to sing, especially when their soul-mates can hear them. Traveling the seas is the best way to find your soul-mate, and it's a small part of why Shanks went out to sea in the first place. The problem is, Shanks seems to be the only person in the crew who's soul-mate refuses to sing! It's not her fault though, Holly can hear him, but she's been trained from day one never to sing. Because after all 'freaks don't deserve soul-mates.'





	1. The Voice

_“Yo ho ho ho, yo ho ho ho.”_

It was that song again.

Holly’s eyes slid closed as she softly swayed along with the words she didn’t understand but had long ago memorized. Never had she heard what it sounded like with full instruments, she didn’t know what it would sound like sung by a dozen voices. All she knew was that it was one of the few songs her soul mate knew. One of the few he’d sing again and again with a voice that danced with joy and excitement.

“Binkusu no sake wa,” she said softly to herself, never allowing her voice to change into a song. She could speak the lines only; for if she dared properly sing, Holly knew she’d suffer for it. The first and only time she’d sung, she had been taught a painful lesson by her aunt.

Now she only ever mouthed the words during school sing-alongs. Holly knew better than to bring upon her aunt's ire.

_“Sora nya wao, kaku tori no uta~.”_

She swayed even if she didn’t understand a single word of the song. Oh, Holly had most certainly tried to find the language, she’d failed quite brutally. It was not any language currently known across the world. No matter what book she read or what language she sought for, it appeared not to exist.

Except it did, because her soul-mate sang in it.

It seems Petunia was right; Holly was a freak. It was clear from the way her soul mate sang in what her aunt would most likely call tongues.

“’Bink-usu no sake wo, todokeni yuku yo,’” she said instead of sang attempting to copy the language her soul-mate sang it. At the same time, he eagerly belted the same words, his voice slightly slurred. He sounded like her uncle did when he was drinking; which meant her soul mate was drunk, another thing for her aunt to laugh at. For, of course, her soul-mate was like her ‘drunk’ of a father that had gotten himself and her mother killed. Drunk or not, he sounded like he was having fun.

She wished she could sing along with him. How would he react, she wondered, to know his soul mate was her. A pathetic freak who couldn’t do anything right, who was trapped in a cupboard and would never sing. Like a caged bird, she thought.

It was unheard of for people not to sing and those that didn’t were stared at with such fierce pity. Those that had permanently lost their voices, those that were mute were like leapers. Everyone sang, everyone. Singing was how you found your soul mate; their songs was the one in your ears. The only way to locate them was to sing to them hints, which is why people had songs for everything.

Honestly, even her relatives sang. Holly had caught her cousin singing about brushing his teeth, though he tended to get winded quite quickly and never finished any song he started. Petunia meanwhile warbled hers like some incredibly bizarre bird. Holly could admit Petunia’s voice was kinder than her personality at least. Vernon meanwhile was like a dying cat rasping and choking while trying to hack up a lung.

Holly ruthlessly preferred her soul mate to their voices. Every song he sang was filled with endless enthusiasm and energy. Her soul mate sang like every moment could be his last, and like he wanted the pleasure of every note. It was soothing to her and by the sheer amount he sang Holly was often only able to sleep if his voice was in her head.

She didn’t know, let alone remember, what her own singing voice sounded like. She couldn’t remember that the only time she’d sung was when her mother had danced her around her nursery. Back then, what came out of her mouth had been complete gibberish, but it had been singing. Unfortunately back then her other half had been too young to realize what it was and certainly didn’t remember it either.

_“Yo hohoho Yo hohoho~.”_

“Yo ho ho ho,” she whispered wishing so dearly that she could respond to him.

 

* * *

 

Shanks sat arms over the railing of the Oro Jackson as he sighed. The rest of the crew was singing nearby in full party mode. Usually, Shanks would be eager to join them, to sing at full volume, to enjoy himself and dance the night away. But the fact was Buggy’s harsh words spoken earlier in the day had gotten to him. Shanks seemed to be the only person in the entire crew that did not seem to have a soul-mate. Shanks had been convinced for a long time that his soul-mate simply didn’t like to sing, that eventually, he’d get them to crack with his own voice. But after so long without a peep, he was beginning to doubt he even had one.

As he sat, a form dropped beside him, Shanks glanced to the side and looked up at Roger, who crossed his legs and got comfortable.

“Any luck tonight?” Roger asked after the barest moment of silence as he smiled underneath his mustache.

Shanks sighed, dropping his head to his chest, he looked away shaking his head in a negative. Roger hummed and looked skyward leaning back slightly and almost tipping too far. “A stubborn lass you’ve got.”

“Stubborn is right,” Shanks bemoaned his luck relaxing in the fact that Roger wasn’t going to tease him for his silent soul-mate. It eased his heart that Roger thought Shanks had one, a stubborn one, but one at all. In the crew, everyone did after all, and as they partied, their soul-mates sang along. Many of them had even met their soul mates during their travel across the seas. In fact, Roger himself had recently discovered his match, a beautiful woman named Rouge who was sailing with them in disguise.

The truth was everyone on the crew had heard their other half sing, even Buggy! Everyone that was, but Shanks. He’d never heard their voice, not a word, not a hum, not even a couple sing-song'd words. His theories of why that was changed every day, maybe she didn’t like to sing, perhaps she was mute, perhaps she was too young to sing, maybe her tongue had been cut out - and if it had, he’d hunt down the person that had done that to his soul-mate, and would rip them apart.

“Don’t look so upset kid,” Roger pat his back, “She’s around, we’ll get her eventually! After all, how could she possibly resist these songs! She can't! We’ll coax her out sooner or later!”

Shanks gave a half-hearted smile and a small nod, he had to have faith. She’d have to respond to a song eventually; no one could resist singing forever.

“She probably just hates your voice,” Buggy snarked from nearby trying to recover from his earlier comment which he’d begun to regret, “she’d sing if you didn’t warble like a dying newscoo,”

“It’s more likely she’s shy, or young,” Rayleigh said shoving Buggy away by swatting him over the back of his head because that was not helpful.

Shanks thought over Rayleigh's words as Buggy yelped and fled, he knew it was possible, but bizarre coming from his mouth considering what Rayleigh’s Shakky was like.

Roger nodded confident in his first mate's words: “Aye, she could be shy! Let's try Another round! We’ll get Shanks’ girl to sing! BINKS SAKE!” Roger cried, and the crew yelled eagerly. Shanks smiled a bit his captain was right; one day, one day she’d crack and then he’d find her. It was only a matter of time.

 

* * *

 

_“Our gums are black, our teeth are falling out.”_

Holly clamped her lips shut and shot a wide-eyed look toward her aunt, the woman had a sixth sense to know when Holly’s soul-mate was singing. Holly prayed the woman didn’t realize, didn’t notice, and punish her. After all, Holly was already on thin ice since Miss Figg - whose singing voice was shockingly pretty even if she only ever sang about cats - wasn’t able to babysit her that day. Instead, Holly was going to be going to the zoo with Dudley which she honestly had mixed feelings about.

_“We’ve got spots on our backs! So give it up and shout.”_

They piled into the cart, leaving her in the middle, which was a disaster in the making. She spent the whole drive being punched and bruised by her cousin and his friend as they screamed along to the radio while she remained silent.

_“We’ve got scurvy! We need some vitamin C”_

Holly followed her aunt and uncle ghosting behind them as quietly as she could. As she did later soul-mate sang a multitude of songs all in that same language. From the song, she knew the best to the others that were new and exciting to her.

She reasoned he must be having a singing party. Different cities and towns collected together to sing songs once a month, each song was set to a location. That way, you could research the song you heard and match it to an area getting a better idea of where your soul mate would be.

Holly personally wasn’t allowed to use the computer at home, it was Dudley’s, but the one at the school she’d taken full advantage of. She’d researched every song her soul mate sang trying to find both the language and location for the song. Both had come up empty.

_“A pirate ain’t worthy, till he got some scurvy!”_

Music classes had become a problematic thing for Holly, she wasn’t allowed to sing, but her teachers expected her to. Thankfully she’d been able to take up an instrument - which no one ever wanted to do, why would they? When they could sing instead. Holly used it to cover up that she was only ever mouthing the words to her class songs, instead of really singing them. Holly knew if she did then somehow, someway her aunt would find out and Holly wasn’t willing to suffer the punishment. Especially since Holly knew the truth ‘freaks don’t deserve soul mates.’

They passed a group of people watching the various animals a few were lightly singing. One woman was singing the lion king while watching the lions and had all kinds of children belting out with her uncertain of the words but uncaring. Holly bounced slightly as they passed. She’d always been quite fond of ‘the lion sleeps tonight,’ and the woman had a lovely singing voice.

_“You unnerve me when you sing that song. Scurvy!”_

They entered the reptile house, and Holly accidentally hummed for a brief second under her breath. Her aunt shot her a sharp look and Holly blanched. She rushed forward avoiding her aunt's hand, not that it would make a difference for long, her aunt had heard. When they got home, Holly would suffer for joining in on her soul mates song.

Unfortunately, Holly would be doomed either way, because apparently, she could talk to snakes.


	2. Do the Hippogriff

Holly was a witch, an honest to goodness cauldron brewing, owl owning, wand waving, broomstick flying magical witch. Eleven years of life and Holly had always thought she’d been nothing more than a freak. That all the odd things that occurred to Holly really were because she was abnormal and wrong. All her life Holly had believed all the lies her aunt fed her, that everything she got she deserved; that her parents died because of her, that her soulmate wouldn’t accept her either because she was a freak and freaks didn’t deserve soulmates. Now she knew the truth. She wasn’t abnormal, she wasn’t a monster, and her parents were not drunks; they had been heroes, and they had saved her life from an insane dark lord.

Now Holly’s entire life had changed. She had money for one, enough to pay for her schooling and much much more. She was now going to a school of magic. She now had friends in Ron and Hermione; though the first thing Ron had done was ask about her scar. It wasn’t a huge deal since the first thing Hermione had done had been to insult Ron and Holly both. But Holly was still happy to have them, her first friends, first real friends.

One of the first things Ron had told her when they met was all about the girls' voice in his head, how she sang so quietly that sometimes he was never sure she was singing, but that he stilled adored her. While Hermione had spoken in great detail about the accent her soulmate had and how she knew he had to live somewhere in Bulgaria - she also claimed she’d learned to speak Bulgarian due to the songs he sang. Holly, in return, had hedged her answers speaking of what she did know, which was next to nothing considering the language her soulmate spoke in didn’t exist.

Hogwarts, in the end, wasn’t too different from the rest of the world when it came to soulmates; namely singing and songs were as important as ever. Everywhere Holly went, she heard the conversations, with a slightly different context.

“Double double toil and trouble~.”

“Have you heard that new weird sisters song?”

“Her voice is like a siren-”

In Hogwarts lessons were given every Wednesday on singing, pitch, and figuring out your soulmate from songs were key lessons, but mostly they just sang. Holly had found herself frozen in terror when the Professor asked her what she’d like to do, she’d been terrified he’d ask her to sing. She’d managed to stutter out that she could play an instrument, which caused everyone to stare at her as she accepted an violin instead of singing. Which unfortunately for her, caused quite a few rumors to spread about how Holly Potter didn’t want anyone to know what her singing voice was like. They all assumed it to make sure no one tricked her because she was a celebrity, no one suspected Holly had never sung before which was unheard of.

Despite learning she wasn’t a freak, despite knowing her aunt would have no idea if she sang at Hogwarts, Holly still couldn’t use her voice. Holly would allow her soulmate to warble on, singing every day and night all kinds of music as if begging her to join it. He never gave up, eleven years, and he was unwilling. He sang jaunty tunes during her lessons - angering Snape on more than one occasion as she caught her swaying to the song. He kept on to the point that she’d long ago memorized every song he sang whether or not she knew the meanings of the words or not. Yet months into her first year at Hogwarts and Holly hadn’t sung once. Not in their lessons, not in the hallway, not in the shower, or even during her quidditch team bonding sessions. Not a single note had passed her lips, and no doubt none would.

Unknowingly Holly was beginning to scare Albus Dumbledore with her silence. He’d been watching her progress through the year, especially during music lessons and he’d noticed her habit of mouthing along or going with an instrument. The pattern was eerily familiar to another little boy who years ago had done the same thing. Tom Riddle had never sung either, refusing to do so ever. He’d refused to acknowledge he could even possess a soulmate, let alone let himself sing and confirm it for his other half. Riddle had always considered them a weakness, and Albus worried Holly would do the same while following in Riddle’s path.

This changed in November. After the troll attacked the school where Hermione had been hiding in the bathrooms after Ron insulted her singing. After Hermione joined their group, she had started to join Ron and Holly during their music lessons. Which meant she was right beside Holly on the girls' side of the room, allowing her to see quite plainly that Holly was mouthing along to every song they sang. Then Hermione Jean Granger decided she needed to know why that was happening, and Hermione had never been very good at denying her curiosity.

 _“Hey ho Sabastian,”_ sang her soul-mate as Holly got comfortable in the common room while doing her homework with Ron; Hermione naturally had finished her own several days ago. Perched on her chair with her work on her needs Holly swayed a bit her fingers absently tapping on the arm of her chair. Her soulmate had been singing that one quite a lot recently, he had learned it only a month prior and he clearly enjoyed it.

Across from her, Hermione’s eyes narrowed on her tapping fingers, then up to her mouth. Once again, Holly was mouthing the words of a song in habit, and yet wasn’t verbalizing them: “Holly.” Hermione finally cracked, “can I ask you a question?”

“Sure ‘Mione.” Holly set aside her homework her, hand flattening as she stopped tapping to focus. Yet her soulmate continued on in her head singing softly, quietly due to the late hour.

Hesitating only a moment Hermione scooted forward, beside her Ron lowered his own book giving them his attention; anything to distract himself he decided. “Why don’t you sing?” she blurted out.

Holly’s eyes flew wide as she scooted back on her own chair, her books lifted as she placed them between her and Hermione, almost a shield: “I… what are you talking about? Of course I sing, I sing every lesson-”

Hermione shook her head, her curls flying out: “That’s fake singing, you’re only mouthing along.”

“Of course I don’t-”

“You do,” Ron spoke up setting aside his own work, “I was wondering about that too.”

Holly glanced between them, she reached up a hand distractedly and tugged at the skin of her lips. Before she snapped her hand down recalling her aunt yelling at her for the habit, an echo of the punishments that had built up every time she’d gotten even close to singing. Holly’s eyes clamped shut, her hands clasping in her lap. She reminded herself that Ron and Hermione were her friends, and they’d never tell her aunt; they’d never even meet her aunt if Holly had anything to do with it. So gingerly Holly whispered a confession she’d never spoken of before: “I’ve… I’ve never sung, I wasn’t allowed to.”

“Wait, never?!” Ron blurted out. Holly flinched minutely then hopelessly nodded unable to look at either of them. “But then, how does your soulmate know how to find you?”

“They wouldn’t… he sings doesn’t he? Or they I guess? She?”

“He,” Holly confirmed for Hermione who hadn’t known, “I guess he wouldn’t know.”

“Well then.” Hermione straightened up giving Ron a look, Ron nodded to her reading her quickly despite the short time they’d been friends, “I guess you just have to sing now then. A short song, right here, right now; to make sure he knows.” She gestured around the common room when Holly gasped snapping her head up, “it’s just Ron and me here, it’s minimal pressure.”

“Yeah, and we’ll sing with you.” Ron agreed as he made a show of checking for people in the darker areas to make her feel secure.

Still, Holly hesitated.

Holly’s aunt wasn’t here. Petunia would never find out… and she knew now that she wasn’t a freak that didn’t deserve a soulmate. Still, Holly couldn’t help but think the worse; maybe he wouldn’t like her, perhaps he didn’t want her like her aunt and uncle claimed. Perhaps he’d hate her for making him wait for so long, or perhaps he’d be put off by what would surely be a terrible singing voice. Or maybe they’d never find each other like so many other pairs.

Singing she knew made everything real. It made her soulmate aware of her when he might currently believe she didn’t exist and might be happy with that.

Tugging at her lip again Holly heard her soulmate in her head, singing ever on despite Holly never responding to him. He’d returned to his favorite song what she assumed was called Bink’s sake. That one she knew by heart even if she didn’t understand the words. She glanced at Hermione who gave her an encouraging nod, and at Ron who copied the muggles thumbs up.

He… he deserved to know. To know he at least had a soulmate, even if Holly was a terrible one. They deserved a chance, a chance to be like her parents, a chance to be happy.

She opened her mouth and choked out the words she’d never sung; “B-b-bikusu no sake no todoe no yuku yo.” But Hermione and Ron shook their heads.

“That’s just talking Holly, you gotta make it more… singy.” Ron told her scooting forward until he was knee to knee with her.

“Singy isn’t a word Ronald.” Hermione moved a seat over till she was beside Holly as well, she took Holly’s hand stopping her gently from tugging at her lips.

“Well, how else would you describe it?!”

Hermione huffed, smothering her desire to know what language Holly was speaking it, she’d never heard of it. She’d have to look in the library right away for it. “Just do it like he does it… make it-” she sighed, “’singy.’”

“O…okay uhm… umi-kaze kimekase na- mi- err… mimakase~” she was stumbling over the awkward wording and accent, but she was doing it. For the first time in her life, Holly was singing.

In an entirely different world, Shanks was sitting in the crows' nest with his legs hanging. Beside him lay a snoozing Buggy - who wasn’t supposed to be sleeping and if Rayleigh caught him, Shanks' would be all manner of trouble. Shanks didn’t really care either way if Buggy was caught, he wasn’t responsible for the other cabin boy - that said it was much too quiet when Buggy was sleeping. Instead, Shanks was loosely looking around the dark ocean while he practiced his haki. Absently Shanks sang binks’ sake while his fingers blackened before he lost control again.

Shanks sighed lightly as he thought of the day. The crew had been awoken by the man on watch screaming about marines - which was why Shanks was actually paying so much attention to the ocean and why Buggy would be worse off if he were caught sleeping. The marines had forced them into battle, a battle that had killed one of their own. The poor soul had been brand new to the crew and had died instantly from some shrapnel from a cannon blast which Roger had redirected. Roger had been both devastated and furious, he’d lost control of his haki and Shanks didn’t remember much after that. He’d come to hours later in bed with Miss Rouge asking him to keep watch since most of the crew were drinking away their sorrows. Shanks wasn’t technically allowed to drink, and the crew knew better now than to let him sneak some of the drink. The previous time he’d tried Rayleigh had caught him absolutely sloshed, and he’d suffered for it.

Hours later, Shanks had been joined by the now sleeping Buggy, and his louder singing had faded into the soft words he was singing into the night. As always, his soulmate refused to respond to him, and as much as Shanks loved to sing and party, he was finding it difficult to continue on alone.

Then he heard it-

_“umi-kaze kimekase nami… -mimakase~”_

Shanks choked on air flailing and nearly falling right out of the crows' nest as he gave a choked up scream. Buggy beside him snorted and woke with a cry that caused a bit of chaos down below. The crew convinced that they’d just raised the alarm; not that Shanks noticed at all because his soul-mate was _singing!_

“Shanks what the f-”

“Shut it!” he snapped his hand over Buggy’s mouth hears straining desperately. She was quiet, singing so softly that he was convinced he had been mistaken for a moment. Shanks clamped a hand over his mouth and stopped breathing entirely to silence himself. He even pleaded for his too loud heart to just stop a moment, so he didn’t hear it’s throbbing in his desperately searching ears. It didn’t; instead, it grew louder when she continued. She continued!

Overwhelmed and clueless at how he was supposed to feel after all this time, all Shanks could do was choke out the words to a still flailing Buggy. “I have a soul-mate.” His eyes burned as he grabbed his shoulders and curled up. Shanks was glad he was already sitting down because he knew if he’d been standing, he surely would have fallen in the sheer joy of that moment.

She was real, she was singing! His soulmate was real!

In his head, his soul-mate stumbled over the song he knew by heart as if she couldn’t quite wrap her tongue around the words. Shanks found it adorable no matter how awkward, tentative, and soft-spoken it was. She was lovely he decided, beautiful, perfect, and all his. He recalled everything the crew had told him about soulmates to comfort and teach him. How he’d be her other half, how he would protect her, but also fight with her if she wanted to like Miss Rouge said. He’d show her the world and seas like Roger told him. And he’d love her- he already loved her.

Shanks pressed his hands to his mouth as a smile split across his face, and he eagerly belted out, “Yo hohohoho! Yo hohoho!” ignoring the furious complaints below and beside him as well as Rayleigh’s demands to know why they’d just set off a false alarm after the day they’d had. He didn’t care as Buggy sobbed at the first-mate apologizing profusely having been caught out sleeping or when his soulmate temporarily stuttered to a stop when he joined in; before starting up once more sounding a touch more confident. Didn’t notice Roger standing below finally relaxing as he puffed up as proud as he possibly could already having guessed while Shanks’ mood had turned so quickly.

Together he sang with his adorable soulmate, and knew one day he’d find her.

  


* * *

  


  
“It’s like facing your fears or something,” Ron told Holly emphatically, “the more you sing, the less nervous you’ll be about it.”

With Hermione on vacation, she’d put Ron on a mission and Holly on a different one. Holly’s was to locate who in Merlin’s name Nickolas Flamel was; while Ron’s was for him to get Holly to sing more often. So bored of hunting through the library he sat practically nose to nose with her and was ‘ordering’ her to sing. “I’ll even sing with you, it’ll be fine.”

Wincing Holly glanced around the library which was completely empty before nodding. Her soulmate sang constantly now encouraged by her own response; his voice echoed in her head all the time, and she honestly didn’t mind. Though he was also quick to become very quickly depressed because it was a rare occasion that Holly ever sang with him. It broke her heart with how depressed he could make his songs sound as time progressed. Her soulmate was excellent at a guilt trip through song she decided.

“Okay,” Ron clapped his hands to his knees leaning back a bit to her relief, “that weird sister's song then, you know the lyrics to that right?” he tilted his head, “unless you wanna sing a Christmas song? Dad told me muggles have lots of those”

“’Do the Hippogriff’ is fine,” she rushed to say having learned what Ron’s dad thought Christmas songs sounded like.

“Brilliant!” Ron straightened happily and began with enthusiasm as he pretended to play guitar in his seat. He was convinced the odder he acted, the more secure Holly would feel, so Ron went all out. “move your body like a hairy troll~” he gestured at her eagerly while a voice in his own head joined him whispering along, but still singing. As Ron told Holly before, his soulmate sang as if she was terrified of being overheard. Yet the past few months - since the start of his year at Hogwarts actually - she’d gained more and more volume which made him wonder, especially when she started singing the same songs he was in their lessons, but on a different day.

Holly licked her lips choking slightly on the next line. But she managed to force it through her teeth “L-Learning t-to ro-ck and roll~” goodness she sounded like Quirrel!

Ron beamed though, proud of his best friend for trying when it was clear she was terrified. Happily, he sang the next line encouraging Holly to join him, “spin around like a crazy elf~” he pushed off the chair and took Holly’s hands heading tilted in question. Holly blushed, accepted it, and allowed him to pull her up. She’d could dance at least, her aunt hadn’t forbidden her from doing that.

In another world, Shanks froze in the middle of a training match with Rayleigh and was struck across the face and sent flying into a nearby railing. But he didn’t even care as he gave a dazed smile to the skies.

“Brat what was that?!” Reyleigh demanded.

“Shush!” Shanks urged frozen in his spot. His soulmate was singing again, which in itself was exciting, but the language? He’d never heard of such words before.

_“No stoppin' to the break of dawn~.”_

Shanks had traveled all over the blues, to countless different islands, and several had possessed different languages. But he’d never heard one like that before. Wordlessly he mouthed the odd words to himself as Rayleigh through up his hands in exasperation.

_“Put your hands up in the air~.”_

“What’s wrong with him?” Buggy asked as he leaned on his wooden training sword also pausing..

“His soul-mate his singing again,” Rayleigh guessed, “not sure why it’s affecting his training though,” he emphasized trying to reclaim Shanks’ attention, “considering how he acts like this every time, he’s going to get himself killed early, and before he meets her.”

_“Can you dance like a hippogriff. Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma”_

“Ma ma ma ma ma.” Shanks repeated, bouncing a bit to the odd song, “Rayleigh have you heard this language before?” he repeated it loosely, tripping over the words. And suddenly it made sense why she couldn’t sing his own songs properly if that was what her regular language sounded like.

Rayleigh listened carefully before shaking his head, “never heard it, try the captain after training. He can understand most things- not right now! Shanks! You still have training!” Rayleigh gave up on him for the time being, Shanks was clearly useless and would be until he got used to his soulmates voice in his head: “Buggy, front and center, your turn!”

“WHAT? Noo!”

Shanks ignored them and rushed off for the captains quarters at a run. He paused halfway through to do a little jig as his soul-mate got a bit more into the song she was singing. “Na na na, ma ma ma~” he sang with her picking up on the chorus. She heard her stop for a brief moment and froze, had he… had he scared her? Shit, should he have not-

_“M-move around like a spooky ghost.”_

“Yes!” he punched the air and rushed on.

Holly giggled as Ron spun her around in the library, the pair of them acting like the creatures in the song they were singing. She was surprised Madam Price hadn’t kicked them out yet especially since Ron and Holly’s singing and dancing had dragged George and Fred from the bowls of the castle. Both the twins had joined in, and the four of them were dancing in a semi-circle. The twins grabbed both her hands and spun her around. Then as they sang the chorus, she heard a voice align with hers as her soul mate attempted to join her. Holly honestly faltered slightly, it made her nervous and self-conscious. But… but he sounded so eager... like he actually enjoyed it as much as she enjoyed hearing him in return.

George and Fred both nudged her at the same time, and she picked back up. As she did, she smiled to herself and decided she rather liked to sing.   


  


* * *

  


Shanks was over the sky islands with joy; because now that she’d sung once she now sang regularly. Of course, Shanks couldn’t understand a single word of any of the songs she sang, he’d never heard any sort of song like the ones she sang, though he did his best to memorize the odd words so he could share them with his captain. He’d tried when his soulmate had sung the first new song to him, but he’d been unable to recreate the song, which meant Roger couldn’t help him. It had taken a few months for Shanks to memorize enough to share with Roger, enough that he didn’t have less than a few words because Roger needed full sentences so Captain Roger could make sense of them. And thankfully, the Captain was eager to assist.

“Sing them for me, let me hear them.”

“Okay, so… it goes like this,” Shanks told the man. “Okay, uhh” Shanks went for the one he’d heard the most. The words felt wrong on his tongue, but Shanks did his best to copy what his soul mate had sung. “Dance- likue a hip-po-gufu” He tried loosely when he jerked. In a tone that was entirely amused, his soul-mate sang out correcting him.

 _“Dance like a hippogriff,”_ she sang at him.

His stomach fluttered as Shanks felt his skin warm up in embarrassment and pleasure. He quickly repeated the line for Roger correcting what he’d accidentally said before moving onto the next line. His soul-mate corrected him again, the two working through the song slowly.

Listening carefully, Roger closed his eyes and hummed along. “Again.” He said when Shanks finished, so Shanks picked right up at the beginning and restarted the song. Then after three repetitions Roger opened his mouth and began to sing in their language.

“Move your body like a hairy troll. Learning to rock and roll,” Shanks gaped as Roger laughed and continued to sing a translation. How- HOW?! “Not an innocent girl your lass, it’s a fun song,” the pirate king grinned when they finished the song together, “what others does she have?”

“How?” Shanks choked out.

“I have the voice of all things brat,” Roger flicked his head causing Shanks to yelp, “you memorize those songs of hers, and I’ll translate them for you.”

“Can you teach me the language?” Shanks asked, leaning forward, “then I can translate our songs for her, and she can learn ours!”

Roger made a so-so motion with his hand: “Sorry lad, you’ll have to figure that out yourself. I can only tell you what the words mean in our language. I don’t actually speak it.”

“Okay,” Shanks nodded determinedly. He could do that… but he needed more songs from her. Perhaps Shanks could coax her to sing if he sang new songs? She’d already tried to copy Binks Sake, so she was listening to him.

  


* * *

  


Voldemort was still alive, he’d been in the castle the entire year disguised as Quirrel. Holly lay in the hospital bed, staring at the burns across her hands from the magical damage she’d suffered during the fight. Hermione and Ron had been forced to leave her and Dumbledore had left only moments before after telling her what happened. And all Holly could think was that Voldemort was alive.

In the back of her head, her soul-mate sang, his happy-go-lucky songs meant for dancing, for fun. And Holly found herself completely unable to respond to him. As she wondered if she’d made a mistake by giving him hope by singing. Because Voldemort was alive and hunting her, and now she’d angered him. Chances were, Holly might very well end up dead at Voldemort’s hands. And then… what would happen to him?

_“Yo hohohoho.”_


	3. Haven't Met You Yet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternate title: 'The Bane of my existence.' I rewrote this one six times before I decided I really just needed to post what I had. This one was an ordeal! An ordeal I say! I hope you like it <3\. Also, It's currently the longest chapter in the entire series so far, so woot!?

**IN-OUT-IN-OUT-IN-OUT**

_Dear Holly: I was looking into the language your soulmate sings in, are you entirely certain you wrote it down correctly?…_

In-out-in-out-in-out-in-out-

_Holly: Hey so, I just remembered your birthday is on the first. Are you open to a party this year? At my house, of course. Fred and George want to set off some magical fireworks, you haven’t seen them, right? It’ll be awesome and…_

In-out-in-out-

 _Dear Holly: You haven’t responded, I’m growing a bit worried. Are my letters not coming through? Would a phone work better? I’ll give you my phone number just in case you can’t owl me an answer. It’s…_  
_PS: Also, regarding the language of your soulmate. I am beginning to suspect that he’s from another world as I cannot find any reference to the words we wrote down on the train. Don’t worry though! I have some theories about how to find and reach them if that is the case…_

In, out, in, out

_Holly: Why haven’t you answered my letters!? Are you alright? Do we need to stage a rescue? Because the twins are beginning to scare me with their stories and all I can picture is you bleeding out in a gutter somewhere. Answer, please! Otherwise, we’re going to come and get you! I swear we will-_

Holly whimpered pressing the letters to her stomach, the paper crumpled up as her nails clawed at the words desperate to believe they were accurate. That Hermione and Ron still cared about her, that they had missed her, that they were still her friends even if she hadn’t been able to write them a single letter that summer.

“I-I’m not… surprised… No-ot everything… lasts.” Holly sobbed out the words to a song, so softly she scarcely heard her own voices and knew chances were her soulmate wouldn’t be able to hear her either. Which Holly reasoned was sort of the point. Her entire goal that summer had been to avoid angering her aunt and uncle, and singing and magic were the number one and two reasons to end up right in their furious path.

Hermione and Ron had convinced her right from the moment they’d been allowed in the hospital wing that she was not allowed to stop singing. Her friends who had known her for no more than a year by then realized her personality enough to know the first thing Holly would do upon discovering Voldemort would be to stop singing. Passionately they’d sat at her bedside; Hermione had stated with full logic that the chances of Voldemort finding her foreign speaking soulmate were next to nill, especially considering Voldemort didn’t even have a body. While a firmly speaking Ron told her that it was unfair to her soulmate to abandon him without his input at all.

Holly had been convinced by their argument. She’d agreed to sing during the school year, and the school year only. The moment Holly was within the Dursley’s family vehicle heading to Privet Drive, she refused to open her mouth, this was emphasized by her aunt’s furious threats.

Petunia Dursley was Lily’s sister, and unlike Hagrid’s assumptions, Petunia knew very well that Holly could not use magic during the summer break. Magic was less Petunia’s concern, her niece was untrained and couldn’t use magic until she was removed from the Dursley home, lest she be expelled. Rather, her main concern was the soulmate, the being that was bound to her niece, the genuine threat. There was too much unknown to that creature, they could have any level of power, and Petunia refused to allow it anywhere near her family.

So in the car heading to Privet Drive Petunia had made her rules clear. No magic, and no singing under any circumstances. Should Holly be caught doing either, then Petunia would silence her permanently. Holly had no idea what that meant, or how it would be accomplished but she was terrified enough not to push it. It was only when her voice was threatened by an outside source that Holly realized how much she treasured her ability to sing. It was only when Holly thought she might not be able to sing again, that she realized she couldn’t stop.

Holly remained entirely silent and perfectly isolated for an entire month. A whole month as her soulmate’s singing grew steadily more desperate, and as he became more determined. As he sang the catchiest tunes, the most familiar ones, the ones that just demanded she sing. He even copied one of her own, stumbling over the words of ‘do the hippogriff’ and proving he had been paying extreme attention to her.

Then Dobby showed up in Holly’s room, the slave of an elf that stole her letters and connection to the outside world. The magical creature that wanted to save her by destroying her entire life. Holly watched helplessly as he dropped a cake on Vernon’s guests in front of her aunt’s face. Immediately following her aunt had grabbed hold of her, had bodily dragged Holly up the stairs and hurled her in her room. The room that already had a cat flap for food, the room that was locked down with bars outside the window to keep her in. The room she had only escaped because Dobby had unlocked the door and yet he’d never questioned why it had been so firmly locked.

Holly was trapped, forced to sit and wait for her punishment as her aunt and uncle tried to make excuses and to fix the chaos Dobby had unrolled with an attack by cake. Pressed in the corner in the room with the bed between her and the door, trying to hide as she jumped at every sound on the stairs. Her imagination ran wild about what would happen to her, about what her aunt would do. She should not have watched that documentary about medieval torture the previous year, she was picturing boiling water forced down her throat to kill her vocal cords and-

Holly whimpered, holding her letters tighter as she softly sang what was possibly the last song she’d ever sing.

“Talk… myself in, talk myself out.” She brushed a hand over her eyes, but it did nothing to stop the globs of tears pouring down her face. In the back of her head, Holly heard her soulmate’s voice. He’d heard her, somehow he’d heard her voice raised no louder than a mouses footsteps. She couldn’t understand a word, but the tone of voice he used was hopeful and concerned, offering soft comfort. Holly keened breaking down completely.

“Help, Ron, Hermione, someone- I don’t want- please-” footsteps sounded on the stairs, and Holly squeezed deeper into the corner still as her soulmate sang on.

A bang sounded outside, and lights shone through her curtains enveloping the entire room in a bright glow. Holly gasped, looking up the papers crumpling all the more, and a muffled voice sounded right outside her window.

“Is this the right one?”

“I think so, move closer! Let me knock!”

“Should’a brought a rock or something, this is something out of a movie.”

“Right you are, George.”

Holly’s eyes flew wide as she launched herself from the corner to throw open the curtains just as Ron’s knuckles rapped on the window. He hung halfway out a flying blue car, half his body still in the vehicle held secure by one of the twins. Ron’s jerked back in surprise as he saw her, then he relaxed in relief. “Your not dead!”

“Cut the lights.” Fred urged George, and the lights shut off dousing the street in darkness once more.

“I will be soon!” she rushed to say, “get me out of here!” her aunt and uncle were still downstairs, they could come up at any point at all. “Ron-” she sobbed out, growing increasingly desperate and panicked.

“Got it! Step back!” She watched as he leaned back into the car to grab a duffel which he wrenched open. Holly watched as he yanked all manner of items from it, from pepper-spray, to a bear trap, a shovel, a first aid kit, and a… rubber chicken? Before he yanked out a hook and chain. Ron then attached the hook to the window, and the twins turned the car to yank the bars off by force.

Holly’s stepped back as she realized how loud that would be, she’d only have seconds- she sprinted away from the window and snatched up Hedwig’s cage and her Christmas present from Lavender. The girl said every female needed a proper purse and had gotten every girl in their dorm a bottomless bag. Holly’s was a striking silver that Lavender thought matched her eyes. Holly had smartly put ever valuable in the purse before arriving in London, leaving her first-year books as bait items for her aunt and uncle to lock away. She’d have to replace her school clothes, and borrow copies of her summer homework from Ron, but her wand, cloak, album, and Hedwig were all accessible to her. Which were the more important items to her.

Holly slung the purse around her shoulder before she snatched up Hedwig’s cage in a shaking grip. She’d have to apologize to her familiar later because she knew this would be an incredibly unpleasant ride.

_BANG._

The window and a considerable portion of the wall came free, Holly’s window shattered, and she immediately regretted her lack of shoes. It didn’t stop her as pounding footsteps came up the stairs in response to the explosive noise. As she raced right over the glass toward Ron’s and Fred’s reaching arms. Fred grabbed Hedwig’s cage wrenching her owl into the front seat to make room as she launched over the gap between the house and car. Ron’s arms encircled her own, and hands grabbed her bloodied feet-

Holly screamed, grabbing Ron as tightly as she could. She felt Fred throw his weight onto Ron’s catching her upper body as she was yanked between her friends and the monster behind her.

“Let her go fat-ass!” George hollered throwing open his own door. Holly turned to look, saw the furious blood red face of her uncle as George’s foot connected with the man's nose. A damning snap sounded as her uncle howled and the hands bruising up her ankles vanished.

Fred and Ron yanked her into the car, and Holly landed in a panicked tearful heap in Ron’s arms. Frantically George twisted the wheel and sent them up and away as fast as he possibly could. He stopped them the moment they were out of sight and invisible and collectively they just breathed.

The only sound in the car was Hedwig’s distressed noises, the boy’s gasping breath, and Holly’s desperately relieved sobs. For ten minutes they sat there in the clouds before Fred removed the hand covering his eyes as he took a closer look at the girl they’d just saved. His team-mate, his adoptive little sister, Ron’s best friend. Fred stared at the quickly forming hand-print shaped bruises on her legs, eyed the bloodied cuts from the glass and the way her back heaved as she clung to his youngest brother. Then he slid his eyes to George, who had his forehead on the wheel, but his eyes wide open in shock. Neither of them had expected to actually be rescuing Holly that night, they’d just been trying to scare Ron and didn’t want him to go to their mother about what they were doing; so they’d agreed to sneak out and check on the girl. George glanced his way sensing his eyes, and they shared a collective thought.

Holly Potter was under no circumstances returning to that place.

“Let's go home.” Fred finally said as he settled Hedwig more securely in his lap. In the back, Ron nodded as Holly lifted her head and wiped off the mess from her face. She mumbled an apology to Ron for messing up his shirt which he waved off instantly.

“It’s just a shirt Holly, it can be washed.”

Holly nodded, rubbing her nose before she started to climb free of his arms. But Ron didn’t let her go, he personally wasn’t ready to release her. All summer he’d been picturing the worst, and to find out his guesses were right- he wasn’t prepared to let Holly out of his sight for a moment.

“What are we going to tell mum?” George whispered as he started to drive forward.

“Err…?” Fred and Ron both answered.

“Wait… what?” Holly asked, settling in Ron’s arms again with her head on his lap.

“We… might not have told her we were coming,” Fred admitted, “she’ll have to accept it though, she’s the only one that knows how to heal since Bill’s not in the house anymore, and we need to fix up your feet.”

“Sorry.”

“For what?” Fred gave her an incredulous look.

Holly ducked her head, “Bleeding on the car?”

They all scowled at her, and Ron tapped her forehead in chastisement, causing her to blush. “I’m not even going to start on that one,” Fred spoke up, rolling his eyes; instead he reached up and turned on the radio allowing the Muggle station to come in loud and clear. None of the Weasley’s knew the song that popped up, but Holly immediately smiled relaxing to it and opened her mouth to sing clearly for the first time since the fall.

“Here comes the sun~.”

 

* * *

 

  
Molly Weasley knew with a vague sense of the word that abuse directed toward children existed, but she’d personally never encountered it before. Her parents had been an incredible couple raising her, and her siblings with love, care, and the sort of mistakes every parent tended to make at one point. Her husband, Arthur had been raised in much the same way.

Truthfully, the closest Molly had come to abuse had been the distant knowledge of what Sirius Black had suffered, but she hadn’t known the details. And personally, Molly couldn’t honestly believe something like that had been possible. How could a mother, father, or family member do that to a child?

The fact was, however, that Molly couldn’t deny it any longer.

She’d first reacted with distress to discover three of her children missing from their beds in the morning. Distress which grew with a lack of note - Bill had always left a note when he’d snuck out to stop her from worry, why were the twins like this - and the Ford Angela gone. Only to immediately be rushed with relieved anger when they returned. So caught up in her own thoughts she missed the addition they’d brought with them until she’d heard a whimper.

Fred, or was it George? Was carrying a minuscule girl on his back. About the size of Ginny with a mess of - familiar, so familiar - curled black hair and bright green eyes. Molly didn’t need to see the scar to know exactly who this child was. And she wondered quickly, why was she scared? Why was she here? Why was Fred carrying her? Why-why-why-

And then her boys all started to talk at once.

She’d long grown used to them speaking at once and could by then easily pick about the story from multiple sources, not that she let them know that. She tried to tell them she couldn’t understand when they were speaking at once, mostly because the volume became entirely too loud when they were all trying to talk over each other to be heard. This time Molly kept her mouth shut as a horrifying story came through.

“That walrus of a man had bars on her window-”

“He grabbed her and tried to pull her out of the car, from a floor up!-”

“-Terrified out of her mind, mom we can’t let her go back-”

“-Bleeding and was worried about it, instead of the pain-”

“-Needs healing, she’s still hurt so bad mom and-”

“Stop!” she ordered firmly but quietly as to not startle the poor girl. Her boys silenced themselves instantly as Molly stepped forward, focusing on one problem at a time. The most crucial one currently seemed to be the injuries. “George go collect my first-aid kit, Fred bring her to the couch, let us have a look at her feet.” The boys scattered, Ron right at the girl's side.

Molly recalled the letter she’d gotten the night before Christmas from a panicked Ron about his best friend not getting any gifts, ever. She’d been suspicious then but had dismissed it to focus on ensuring the girl got a jumper just the rest of her children and their friends. And now that she was thinking about, this girl and also been abandoned outside the station the year previous, clueless of where she had to go to get on the train- oh no, oh dear, this was not good.

“It’s wonderful to meet you Holly,” Molly spoke as soothingly as she could as George sprinted into the room holding her kit of potions. “Ron’s spoken of you quite a bit.” And he wasn’t the only one either, the twins had gushed endlessly about her flying, and even Percival had spoken of her on occasion. “All good things I promise.”

Holly blushed and shot Ron a distressed look that had Molly giggling in her head. “Now, may I see those feet of yours?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Holly demurred allowing Molly to take one of her shoeless feet in hand to peer at the painfully deep cuts dug into them. As she did, she carefully looked at the blackened bruises on the girl's feet, which matched the not to hidden one around her upper arm. Molly kept her expression pleasant as she chatted with her children and Holly to relax them all. But internally she was already plotting.

If it was abuse, if it was as bad as her children expressed, then Molly would need to do something. She’d need to ensure Holly never returned to that building and to those people. Thankfully she’d likely have until the next summer to figure it out, to build a proper plan, and to speak to the right people.

Sarah would no doubt be willing to assist, and Amelia had far more experience the Molly did… she’d have to talk to Arthur as soon as he got home. They could probably afford one more child, and Molly had always wanted another girl.

“There,” she leaned back, “how does that feel?” she asked.

“much better ma’am.”

“Oh, dear, please call me Molly.” Even though she’d been calling Molly ‘mother’ sooner than later if she had anything to do with it. “Now, you rest here, all four of you. I have a floo-call to make, then we can see about breakfast.”

They nodded, her boys relaxing as they realized they weren’t going to get in trouble for rescuing their friend. They wouldn’t. But she’d have to emphasize the need for a note next time. She’ll owl Bill to tell them, it would be better coming from him than her considering their ages.

Honestly. All eight of her kids were going to make her go gray.

 

* * *

 

After the disaster that was the start of the summer, Holly’s life relaxed into something a bit calmer for the rest of it. Molly and Arthur had accepted her presence with ease and not a word of complaint. She was put in Ginny’s room and given a pair of Ron’s older shoes to replace the ones she’d been forced to leave behind. The rest of her clothing had been hemmed from the boys, mostly Percy’s who had been shorter like she had, instead of Ron, who was quite tall for his age. Holly had been a mess when Molly handed the clothes to her but hadn’t been able to say no, considering Percy’s hand-me-downs fit far better than Dudley’s ever had.

Halfway through the month, Hermione had visited, and Ron had surprised her with a slightly late birthday party. Most of her gifts had been clothing, but Holly had loved the fact that she’d gotten a birthday at all, which was a first as she’d told Ron. Her comment was one more Molly added to her growing list of concerns about Holly’s family life, a list Holly had no knowledge of for the time being.

That summer had been the best she’d ever had after being accepted by the Weasley’s. She’d gotten her first birthday, been accepted by a real loving family. She’d been given minimal chores, by her own insistence that she wanted to do something, got to play and visit Lee’s house with the twins. She learned song after song with the Weasley’s and even attended one of the monthly Muggle sing-alongs with Percy. On top of all that the last two weeks of summer had Hermione staying with them as well, and she got to debate with her friends all about the language her soulmate sang in, which Hermione theorized was from another world accessible through a rare type of magic.

Holly was determined to find it as they headed off to Hogwarts together, or tried to. They and a dozen other families were stopped at the gate to the platform when it randomly closed twenty minutes early and created an incident. Quite a few families were prevented from entering the platform, and they all missed the train. It was a massive incident with the ministry. The kids all needed to floo’d directly to the school several hours before the other students arrived. Personally, Holly had thought it odd, but hadn’t thought it had been explicitly directed toward her until she’d been attacked by a murderous quaffle a month later.

The bloody thing shattered her arm, and then their newest defense professor vanished all the bones in the same arm. Somehow the twins were able to their parents about it happening. As a result Holly got to witness Molly and Arthur’s protective fury in the flesh. She hadn’t been able to understand someone being that worried about her, especially not to the point of Lockheart nearly being suspended for what he’d done. Ron hadn’t been able to explain either, he’d told her it was something she’d just have to get used to. She suspected her comment about how uncomfortable Lockheart made her with his stares hadn’t really helped Molly and Arthur’s anger about the whole situation.

Then there was the whole voice in her head incident. No, not her soulmates. But rather a hissing voice intent on murder and killing. It wasn’t at all strange to hear a voice in your head, but one that didn’t sing? One that your soulmate seemed not to notice? That was a bit odder. Holly, however, had had enough with being the freak, so she hadn’t said a word to anyone about what she was hearing.

Instead of focusing on the Chamber, the attempts on her life, and the oddities of Ron’s parents, Holly focused on her soulmates odd language. The first hint of which, she got in History of Magic after the winter break.

Holly’s head hit her desk as she soundlessly groaned. Binns history lesson was dragging on endlessly, and her mind was slowly, painfully, eating away at itself from the lack of stimulation until a single sentence was uttered. Holly perked up head nearly smashing into a drooping Ron’s who had been about to fall asleep on her shoulder.

“-The high elves left our world for another.” Explained Binns in a way that wasn’t world-changing to members of his class. Hermione nearly caused a scene as she rushed to take notes about the suddenly crucial history lesson. The girls both hung on his every word. “It’s not certain how or why they left, but we know from our stories and signs in magically powerful areas that this indeed happened.” Binns then moved off the elf topic and back toward the accursed Goblin Wars.

“That’s it?!” Holly demanded causing the class to flinch and wake back up. “Surely there’s more information than that? How did they go there? How do we know? What were the signs? Can we follow? Are there multiple worlds?!” Holly shot the questions one after another in quick succession and went utterly ignored by their professor. “Sir!” she demanded. The ghost reached up writing on the board, his voice droning on and a frustrated scream built inside her; when a throat cleared from behind.

Holly shot around her to see Parvati looking her way, calmly the girl said: “if you want to know more about the high elves I’d suggest Professor Flitwick, he has three masteries, and one was done on elvish history.”

“Really?” Holly asked brightly. Most of the class turned to watch them, dismissing their professor for the far more interesting conversation, and Holly Potter losing her composure.

“How do you know that?” Ron asked, adding onto to Holly’s question.

“My sister, Padma, she is obsessed with elves.” Parvati shrugged, “she went on and on about meeting him when we were coming to Hogwarts. Doesn’t matter really, the point is, he can answer some of your questions about the high elves.”

“Do you know anything? What can you tell me?”

“A bit I guess, mostly what Padma told me. Let’s see.” Parvati tapped her chin thoughtfully, then nodded, “so apparently High elves needed a lot of magic to survive, like their bodies are made of magic and they need it for their immortality. So waaaay back when, when Merlin lived or whatever, magic started to lessen in our world. It’s enough for humans and most creatures, but for the high-elves it wasn’t enough so they had to leave for a world with more magic in it or they’d all start dying.”

“And then?” asked Lavender as they started to gather around to hear Parvati speak.

“Then, err… so they created this portal thing; apparently some witch found it a few hundred years ago, anyway it’s hidden deep in this really magically potent forest and its direct location is kept strictly secret. The Unspeakables are the only ones that know now where it is; but they protect it, and they’re physically unable to say where the location is, you know, to keep it safe.” Nods all around, “anyway people still study it now. There’s this obscure group that swears we’ll need it one day to escape the Muggles, which is nonsense, but you know the type.” More nods.

“So can it travel to multiple worlds?” Hermione asked, “and do these High elves have a different language than us?” Holly shot Hermione a look and quickly understood, was her soulmate an elf?

“No clue that you have to ask Flitwick.” Parvati rolled her eyes, “I don’t have all the information.”

Holly resolved herself to do exactly that, in fact, the moment school ended for the day she grabbed Hermione and Ron and dragged them toward their Charms class. Holly was on a mission, Hermione was burning with questions, and Ron was… dancing. Heading together with Ron who was a step behind, the girls caught him in the corner of their eye suddenly stopping to do a little jig as he started to sing none too quietly: “A magic feeling, is growing so strong~.”

Hermione and Holly slowed to glance at him as he grinned at them and quickly explained: “she’s singing again, loudly too. I figured, well, Holly’s soulmate always seems to like it when she sings with her, I figured I’d try the same. Especially since she’s so quiet during the holidays.” Ron had fretted the entire break about the girl who only ever whispered sang during the summer and winter breaks, down to the day in fact.

“I don’t know that one, otherwise I’d join you,” Hermione said whose soulmate was the opposite, he never sang during the year, only the breaks. Though there had been an exception to that. Muggles, as she and Holly knew, had sing-alongs to help tell their other halves where in the world they were. The magical community did this differently; their traditions involved school songs which Hermione thought was foolish. Each magical school had a different tune, and going off only that, was assuming a witch or wizards soulmate had to be magical when that wasn’t guaranteed as Holly clearly proved. Though technically Hermione’s was magical; the one song her soulmate sang during the year and had for several years by then, was the anthem for Durmstrang. She knew by extension that he went to Durmstrang and had magic - which annoyed her endlessly with the questions as to how she’d find him across such a large potential area.

Ron’s other half meanwhile they’d discovered the year previous went to Hogwarts; which proved nothing and the success of a school song working. Though they did know she had to be a second year with them due to when she’d started to sing the song, which was… mildly helpful.

Ron twisted on the spot and took Holly’s hand pulling her into the dance: “She’s been singing it all week, maybe it’s something someone else taught her? Doubt it’s from her home.” He scowled thinking about it. He might have been jumping to conclusions, but it couldn’t be a coincidence that both his soulmate and Holly were silenced when at their homes. Ron could not stop thinking about what he’d learned about Holly’s home-life and picturing that for his soulmate as well. “No way her parents taught it to her, she’s just like you Holly, never singing loudly when at home. Makes me think…” Ron trailed off when he noticed Holly’s expression and internally swore, he’d pushed her too far, he knew better than to bring it up-

“It’s likely she’s not singing loudly when she’s home because she isn’t allowed to.” Holly finished feeling her mood sour, she didn’t want to accept or even think it, but after seeing Ron’s parents and family, how they treated each other made her begin to realize what she had wasn’t anywhere close to normal. But she couldn’t accept it, because accepting it meant- meant that her aunt, her only living relatives really did despise her.

“Sorry Holly,” Ron whispered. He’d been speaking to Charlie and Bill all year about abuse, the signs of it, and how to talk to people who’d suffered it. He wanted nothing more than to help Holly through what her scummy relatives had done. But he was floundering, he had no idea how to help when she couldn’t escape the situation, and their people didn’t have anything like the Muggles ‘terra-pists.’ “I just don’t want her to suffer like that, I don’t want to think about her-” or Holly, “-being hurt like that and yet being unable to help.” Just like Holly’s own soulmate couldn’t.

“Sometimes you can’t do anything,” Holly stated walking faster so they couldn’t see her expression, “sometimes people are just like that.” In her head, her soulmate’s voice pitched up in a happy, joyful song, as if telling her to cheer up. Her shoulders sagged a bit, she wished she could, wished she could be as relaxed and comfortable a he was. Holly wished she could do whatever she wanted, wished she could escape, to be free, to just- to just-

She shook her head as they arrived at Flitwick’s classroom, and Holly knocked unwilling to look back at Ron and Hermione, who had fallen silent with pensive unhappy energy. She rapped on the door before she could hesitate or second guess and stepped inside unmindful of the expression on their faces.

“Come in-” Flitwick went still at his desk as he saw them, saw the red eyes on Hermione who could do nothing to help either of her friends. Saw Ron’s wringing hands and biting lip. Saw Holly’s broken helpless expression that she wiped clean in an instant, so quickly that he was almost sure he’d imagined it. Almost. “Are you three alright?” he stood quickly and hopped right over his desk to approach them.

“Yes sir, nothing is wrong,” Holly said on instinct-

_‘Please Professor Dumbledore- I… maybe I could just stay at Hogwarts? I wouldn’t be much trouble-… why? It’s just… it’s… it’s nothing, I mean- it’s something I just-… no sir. I understand sir.’_

“I just had a question, about high elves?”

Filius eyed them, noted their recovering expressions, and decided for the time being to leave it. He had no proof, just suspected. He’d have to watch them, watch for any sign something wasn’t right. It was possible they were upset over the Chamber or the gossip following Miss Potter, many of his Claw’s were bothered intensely by the former, and he’d had wanted to schedule a counselor to come to visit them, but his request had been denied. He knew mental health wasn’t a popular subject in the magical community, but he’d expected better from the headmaster and the board. Perhaps he could convince the other head of houses to assist in his request, he could also speak to Minerva about the state of mind of these three particular lions.

“Certainly.” He backed off to sit down, to teach bright young minds about one of his favorite topics, to make himself smaller, more approachable by nervous young children: “What is it you’d like to ask?”

“The portal!” Holly blurted, “was there multiple worlds they could have traveled to? Or is there only one? And do the high-elves have a language? Do we know it? Can it be translated? Learned?”

Filius linked his fingers together withholding his surprise; he’d expected the questions to come from Miss Granger who he been convinced had been miss-sorted until the Troll incident. He hadn’t expected at all such questions from Miss Potter, though he supposed it wasn’t a surprise. Her marks were perfect, in a purposely trying to fail sort of way. She was precisely a point behind Ronald Weasley for every exam, test, or piece of homework. The sheer amount of dedication and intelligence it took to remain precisely one point behind Mister Weasley so consistently made him thrilled to see Holly Potter take such an interest in a topic he loved. Especially since as of yet he’d not convinced anyone of her hidden intelligence.

So Filius waxed poetry to the kids. He spoke of the theories involved with the portal that hadn’t been seen by anyone outside an unspeakable. He explained how the elves could not possibly have gotten lucky with a magically powerful world with one single try and how he’d written about other worlds that could be. Then he spoke of the language of the High Elves, which did exist and could be spoken by specialists which he, unfortunately, wasn’t one.

“If you wish to learn the language itself, you will have to contact a specialist,” He smiled fondly at how eager they were. “Shall I recommend one?” Filius would encourage her love of the topic, promote her intelligence, push the thought that she ought to share it.

“I’d like that, sir.”

He beamed, this was a step forward he was thrilled for her to take: “certainly, his name is John, and he’s…”

 

* * *

 

  
“So, what did he say?” Ron asked months later with a lack of topics to lead them. Hermione’s absence was a toll on them both; her insight, words, and presence completed their group, and without her, Ron and Holly were floundering.

“That the language I’m hearing isn’t the language the elves used, but he wants to help me learn to speak it. Apparently, he has a thing for languages and loves learning new ones.” Holly said, striding through the hall with Ron, “Do you think… we can trust him?” she almost asked Tom Riddle’s diary while waiting for a response, Tom was highly intelligent, and she had thought he could help, but the diary had been stolen right after she’d decided to do so. Which she’d soon realize was for the best.

“Hermione will probably be thrilled, remember how she said he was some famous Muggle writer or something?”

“She did say that,” Holly recalled, “I wonder if the books are any good.” Personally, she hadn’t gotten around to reading much fiction, when they had Hermione back, she might go about fixing that. It would be a great topic for them to talk about during the summer.

“I’d be willing to try them. They’d have to be better than Lockheart’s books.”

“And just as fake.” Holly laughed, only to be cut off as they caught tense voices around a nearby corner. She and Ron exchanged a look, fell silent, and crept forward to eavesdrop, and from that, they discovered the truth. A student had been dragged into the Chamber of Secrets, and not just any student either; it was Ron’s little sister.

“Ginny.” Ron breathed out in horror as he staggered face pale and hands shaking. He swayed as he pressed a hand to the nearby wall, dizziness rushing through him. Ron only avoided falling and giving up their location thanks to Holly’s quick grab that steadied him. Desperate Ron looked at her, one single look was all it took for Holly. She had the mind of a Ravenclaw, the cunning of a Slytherin, and the loyalty of a Hufflepuff, but none of that made a difference in the face of her utter courage. Holly snatched hold of Ron’s arm and dragged him away, her mind working a million miles an hour as she put it together from the hints building around them- and of course; that was why Hermione had been in the library with a mirror that day. No wonder she’d been found with a book on magical creatures.

“Basilisk,” Holly hissed out. The voice in her head, it was not in her head, it wasn’t part of her soul, it was a voice she was actively hearing in the walls.

“What?- Holly- where?-” But how was it getting around? And how had no one died yet- no that was wrong-

Her soulmates voice lit up in a song, a new one. It was energetic, full of drive and power, it was a song of battle, a song built for what she had to do. Holly’s lips twisted up, feeling that soft spot for him grow, he always knew.

“Myrtle! I am a moron! No, wait-” she scowled, “everyone else is, a twelve-year-old should not have been the first person to put this crap together. Come on.” Holly dragged Ron down the hall as her mind rushed ahead. Did she have the time to get the book? No, there was no telling how long Ginny had left. They’d just have to handle it themselves.

_'She could get a professor-'_

She couldn’t rely on adults, they were useless and wouldn’t believe her just like they hadn’t the year before about anything-

_'Flitwick helped her get in contact with the language guy, he could be trusted?'_

“Where are we going?” Ron asked racing after her as she led him to the girl's bathroom, he’d stopped being dragged several floors ago and trusted her to lead him right. “The bathroom?”

“Mrytle’s bathroom, she’s the girl that died last time.” Holly stopped at the doorway and looked toward Ron, “the creature is a basilisk, and the entrance is in the bathroom… and we’re going to save your sister.”

_'She’d save Ginny with Ron, they’d handle the problem themselves.'_

“Remember,” she said, staring at the entrance and the hole leading the Chamber, “any sign of movement, close your eyes straight away.”

Ron straightened his spine, stared into the depths, and nodded.

They were saving his sister.

 

* * *

 

A blur of color- a flash of green- the harsh, cruel words of Tom Riddle as he foolishly stole Ron’s wand instead of her own. Nearby Ron was covering Ginny with his own body, desperate to protect her even if she might no longer be alive- while Holly stood across from Tom Riddle before the statue of Salazar Slytherin, stood challenging him with her stare as he taunted her, giving away his every secret in a mad monologue that she hadn’t thought villains actually did. She was calm while he did so, composed while she tried to think of a plan, quiet as he revealed who he really was, clam until he-

“You sing to him and open yourself to weakness,” Tom told her cruelly.

-Until he brought her soulmate into the conversation. The biggest button she possessed, a surefire way to anger her. Holly’s tempers flared like her mothers so often had.

“He is the best part of me,” Holly said without hesitation, “and I don’t even know him yet.” But she would; he kept her sane when she’d been so painfully stifled and hurt. He was the first person to love her and was amazingly no longer the only one to do so. He was the one that kept pushing her to sing, to embrace him, to find joy, and he did it without even making a single word of sense to her.

Holly had only the knowledge of two years of useless defense education. She only knew how to duel thanks to what Snape had taught them in one disastrous dueling lesson. But it didn’t matter, because she had a plan; Holly just had to bluff. It was a rather simple plan that grew to fruition the moment Tom stole Ron’s wand, the moment they both realized Tom was no ally against the beast.

She just needed him to cast a single spell. If Tom didn’t realize the wand would backfire then-

“So… so bring it.” Holly taunted.

They cast at the same time, a red and green spell lighting up their wands and-

_Tom screamed_

-Ron’s wand hit the ground, and Ginny gasped to life.

 

* * *

 

“So… a hippogriff is… what exactly?” Shanks asked Roger as they stood quietly together at the helm. Roger was leaning, arms across the helm as he watched Rouge dancing happily at the bow of the ship with some of the crew. She’d thoroughly enjoyed the song of the island they’d discovered at their most recent spot, it had been an exciting battle tune that had the whole crew singing and dancing around all afternoon, all of them giving out a sign to their soulmates of where they were and how far they’d traveled. Shanks had joined into the party naturally but had been disappointed once more to learn the language was common, and he hadn’t found the home of his soulmate.

“Lad.” Roger gave a tired chuckle, “I honestly couldn’t tell you, I can only tell what the word means, not what it actually is. To find what manner of ‘thing’ that is you’ll have to go hunting yourself.”

Shanks groaned; figuring out how to translate their words into hers was proving increasingly difficult. His troubles started in the summer months when there had been a full month where his soulmate had returned to not singing again, he didn’t admit to anyone how much it had panicked him at first, nor had he told anyone it had happened in the first place. Thankfully after that month he’d caught her whispering through a song; he wondering if she’d done so before and he’d just missed it due to how quiet it had been. He couldn’t know, and it didn’t matter in the end as she began to sing again after that. All that did matter was whatever it was that had stopped her from singing in the first place, Shanks was desperately relieved she hadn’t let it mute her for longer, and was growing increasingly aggressive toward what was doing it.

“Maybe… Hippo, like those water animals and Griff?” He made a face mentally picturing some cursed animal with the body of a hippo and a bird of some kind. Shanks was quick to shake the thought from his head, “what about an elf?”

Roger hummed a distracted noise: “pretty sure those are those tiny people on Dressrosa… excuse me a moment lad, I have… something to attend to.”

“Huh? Alright, thanks for the help, Captain! Now… Dressrosa… do we have a book on that?” Shanks turned away mumbling to himself as he strode toward the small library that had in the Oro Jackson.

Roger watched him leave, waited until the moment Shanks was completely out of sight before he sagged completely on the helm. His eyes squeezed closed a moment as he tried to will away the pain. It wasn’t doing any good. Now that Crocus had left the ship and he was out of the drugs he needed to temporarily shove away the burn, he was beginning to feel it more and more often. Hissing slightly under his breath Roger dug his fingers into the wood of the helm and nearly lit up his hand with haki, which would have destroyed it, not ideal to do for the second time that week. Wrenching an eye open - when had he closed them? - Roger glanced toward Rouge as she belted out the words to the song he heard echoed in his head.

Roger tried to straighten, to brush it off as he always had, but- no his vision was going fuzzy, he’d been too active that da- he needed to-

He didn’t have enough time to-

Roger opened his mouth and sung softly, “You got something I need. In this world full of people, there's one killing me.” He watched Rouge slow to a stop, her cheeks tinting as bright as her hair as she remembered the moment he did. He would forever remember meeting her, belting out the words to the song he’d sung to her a thousand times through their childhood. The very same song his mother sang to her soulmate till the day she died an entire ocean away from him. The same one he knew Roger would sing to Rouge when he met his own end, the same one Roger had immediately started up when he first caught sight of her on the marina staring longingly out to sea. He hadn’t even needed to see her singing to know, one look at her and that was all it had taken, she was his for as long as he lived.

“And if we only die once. I wanna die with you.” He straightened a bit as she scanned the ship and lifted her eyes toward him. She was so full of energy and love; Rouge loved sailing and the ocean, she loved seeing new places and learning new cultures. She was life and adventure, love and thrill. She made every moment of his experience through life worth it, she made the pain fall away. Made the dark thoughts in the back of his head fade, the ones about leaving her along and young, about what the crew would do after the sickness finally snatched him away as he knew it would.

Rouge’s eyes locked with his own, and he watched her realize. She and Rayleigh could read him like no one else, they always knew- she turned immediately to speak to Rayleigh, and they both rushed toward him. Roger breathed easier as they did; Rayleigh would ensure the ship was well taken care of that night. He would cover for Roger, and with Rayleigh in charge, no one would discover how bad it really was. And Rouge, his lovely wife would be there as he took a moment, just a single moment to let the pain show, to allow his body to rest.

“If we only live once. I wanna live with you.” Rouge sang to him, meaning every word as she reached his side. As much time as she could steal from the gods, as much happiness as she could claim and rip from their hands. She’d live with him without regret, for as long as she could.


	4. Fight Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning, a bit of a gruesome moment in this chapter. No obvious spoilers but someone does bite it... the first of many unfortunately >.>

“Does this count as kidnapping?” Arthur said out the side of his mouth toward his wife. He and the family were leaving the station at a speed faster than a ‘brisk’ walk. All the while trying to act as innocent as possible. For Arthur, it wasn’t honestly a problem, he was used to acting natural when anything but was occurring. Likewise, his Mollywobbles, to the world as nothing more than a homemaker, was smiling happily as if everything was right in the world; though the difference between himself and Molly was that to her it was, and to him, he was aware of what could happen. Outside himself and his wife, Ron and Ginny had only been let into the plan hours ago, due to that, they looked like Yule had come early. Percy, unfortunately, was a nervous wreck but thankfully wasn’t complaining publically. While the twins, for all of their pranks, had expressions that screamed that they were doing wrong - then again, Arthur might just be used to those expressions.

The family rushed together through the station, from the train itself toward the Ford Angela at their ‘brisk walk.’ All the while, they boxed in the smallest figure between them to hide her from the public eye. And wasn’t that just one more sign? She was shorter than even Ginny, who was a year younger than her. Holly Lily Potter was a minuscule creature, wearing the now fitted clothing that Ginny had passed to her over the year - without even being asked! Her black hair had been smashed under one of Percy’s hats disguising the color. While Ron had stolen her glasses and was bodily leading her, so she didn’t walk face-first into anything. Her owl had been sent ahead by the twins. All this had been in the effort to ensure no one noticed that the Weasley family… was kidnapping the girl-who-lived.

Arthur peered at the pre-teen, catching a glimpse as Ginny bounced excitedly at her side and he saw her reddened eyes. Soundlessly she cried, with her hands pressed to her lips to muffle any sounds that might escape and give her away. Ron, his wonderful son, chatted on and pretended he didn’t see it as he excitedly told her everything they’d do that summer. Ginny, still recovering from what had happened with that bloody diary, agreed energetically - more excited than he’d ever expected after what she’d been through. As he listened in, he heard Ginny gush about sharing a room for the first time in her life.

“Of course not, she’s willing!” Molly proclaimed, re-catching his attention. Her eyes scanned the area like a dragon ready to breathe fire at the slightest perceived slight. Arthur had no doubts Charlie would confirm his comparison. Regardless, Arthur hummed a confirmation to Molly’s comment because it was true. Holly was very willing to join their family, but she was also very willing to join any family to escape those Dursley’s. Which wasn’t as comforting a thought as he’d like.

Now, he and Molly had spent much of the year attempting to find a proper, legal, way of getting Holly away from those people but it had proved a challenge. They’d started most obviously, by visiting the pair themselves once they’d sent the children to Hogwarts. The meeting had, to be as kind as possible, gone badly. The bars the twins told them about had since been removed, but other signs within the house itself hadn’t. The cat-flap Molly had overheard about had been present, the cupboard - Arthur couldn’t even fathom the closet - carried signs if one was looking closely. And after Molly had threatened the woman that had been related to Lily - honestly, he couldn’t see the resemblance at all - the dirty truth had come out.

After that visit, Molly and Arthur had debated what to do for their next step because they absolutely could not allow Holly to return there. If it hadn’t been bad enough after the kids' daring escape, Molly and Arthur’s visit had definitely made things worse for the child. On the other hand, the proper authorities to contact in the magical world wouldn’t do anything about it. It was partly - entirely - due to the pureblood’s in charge of the Wizengamot not wanting anyone looking into how they raised their heirs. So abuse in all forms was shoved under the rug, all because the magical world didn’t possess a system to counter it. A friend of Arthur’s, a woman who had been a victim of childhood abuse had blatantly told him there was nothing to be done outside of therapy as an adult, muggle therapy because mental health wasn’t commonly spoken of either. Arthur was still in awe after speaking to a few muggle ‘sky-terra-pists.’ All this left Molly and Arthur at a standstill and an impending question, could they really do nothing?

The answer was blatantly a no, but the most straightforward method was to just take the girl who lived into their home… illegally. For any other child, it wouldn’t be questioned in their world. Sirius had run away at fifteen and spent his every summer after at James Potter’s home and no one ever asked about it. That hadn’t just been a one-time occurrence either. Andromeda had spent a significant amount of time at Arthur’s childhood home after she’d been burned from the family tree. And though Holly was younger, her relatives wouldn’t miss her, and it would only be for the summer as far as a public knew. The problem was, Holly was the girl-who-lived, she was a public figure and if anyone found out the truth… Arthur didn’t want to imagine what would happen to him, Molly, and the kids.

But then there was Holly. Ron’s best friend, an innocent little girl, a very abused young lady, and someone Molly and Arthur needed to help.

Still, they were torn, indecision rushing through their hearts and minds. Until a floo call came in from McGonagall Minerva, and everything settled into place even as their worlds dangerously rocked. He and Molly had sat at Ginny’s bedside, watching her breathe in and out. He kept a hand on her chest, feeling the steady up and down motion, just to remind himself that yes… his daughter was alive. Then he’d cast his eyes toward a steadily sleeping Ron who’d blurted the entire story to them, and to Holly curled in the smallest of balls. Even in sleep, she protected her head, but her expression… it was utterly innocent. Arthur had known then what they had to do, and Molly had agreed one-hundred percent.

The savior, the girl-who-lived, was eleven years old and had faced Tom Riddle - Voldemort - and a basilisk to save Ginny. She was a hero, and she was eleven years old, a baby. And Molly and Arthur would risk themselves to protect her from any more cruelty.

That night Arthur and Molly planned everything out, the next day they contacted Percy and the twins for aid. Each acting out their part to smuggle Holly out of the platform without raising suspicions from the parents picking up their own children. Right past the muggles at the station, and straight into the Ford Angela. Because they were kidnapping Holly Potter, and nothing was going to stop them.

“He’s here,” Molly said out of the side of her mouth as she tried to plaster on an innocent expression across her face. It was twitching and a terrible attempt, but at least she tried to act innocent as she spotted the monster of a being - worse perhaps than Voldemort in her opinion - Vernon Dursley. The man was taking all the time in the world to exit his vehicle, preparing to pick up his niece. As Arthur watched an expression of pure cruelty twisted the man’s face, and Arthur knew he was imagining all the cruelties he wanted to subject their daughter to-

Molly’s hand stopped him before he stormed toward the beast and socked him across the face. He felt his skin burn holding himself back by a breath as he watched the man saunter into the station.

“We don’t have long Arthur, quickly before he notices she’s missing and before she notices him.”

He exhaled through his teeth and nodded a single time sharply. Arthur forced his eyes away from the man and tilted his head so the kids couldn’t see the violent expression on his face. Then he marched toward the driver's side of the car and hopped in quickly. He didn’t try to speak as Molly hopped in on the other side and glanced back cheerfully.

“All buckled in family?”

From behind five of their children responded with a positive and Molly frowned: “I said ‘All buckled in family?’”

More confirmations, but again, only five. So Molly slid her eyes to Holly, and she politely waited. After ten seconds, Ron nudged her and whispered quickly in her ear. Holly turned bright red and rushed to stutter out: “Y-yes, I’m… err, ready!”

Arthur started the car feeling far better than he had a moment ago, and Molly sat forward, making herself comfortable as they started down the road toward home. Casually, as they drove down the road, Arthur cleared his throat, turned to his wife, and brought up the secret he’d been keeping for quite a while. “So, that thing I won for the summer,” the trip to Egypt they hadn’t told the children about, the one that involved the Weasley’s but got complicated when it came to their newest illegal addition. Molly glanced his way and gave a curious noise. As of that moment, Arthur had actually been intending to stay behind with Holly as he sent the rest to visit Bill… until Arthur ran into a bit of luck. “I have a co-worker, and please don’t be upset Molly-wobbles, but he was able to make a Muggle passport for Holly and for us. That way, we can all go on the trip together.” He grinned her way, wondering if she would be furious with him, he wasn’t sure how far they were going to push the crime-breaking after the first one committed that afternoon. He was counting on the high it would be giving Molly now that they had succeeded at stealing a child.

“Oh, Arthur!” Molly thankfully beamed at him, “that’s wonderful, they’ll love it!” they glanced in the review mirror together just in time to see Percy successfully get Holly to stop crying and laugh. “Goodness knows Bill wants to meet her after everything we’ve told him, and Holly deserves a chance to meet her eldest brother.”

 

* * *

 

Holly rubbed her hands together nervously as the plane touched down. She’d spent the whole trip between Ron who had tried to melt into his seat because on her other side was Arthur who’d chatted with the flight attendant the entire time about the hows and whys of how an airplane flew. Holly was fairly certain the woman thought Arthur a bit touched in the head and had offered him the chance to see the cockpit when they landed.

Which meant they left the plane a little bit later than everyone else because Arthur had dragged Ginny along to meet the pilots with him while the rest of them had declined out of embarrassment, or fear like Holly. Not a fear of the plane, but constant fear that eventually this joy would be ripped away from her. When Ron had grabbed her at the station and had refused to release her despite her half-hearted protests that she had to go back to the Dursley’s, she’d been confused but relieved. She’d been terrified the last month of Hogwarts, convinced she was heading to her death after everything that occurred that year. Twice she’d escaped Ron and Hermione’s presence to prevent herself from having a panic attack in front of them, both times she’d holed up in the bathroom and had sung to her soulmate. He had, as if sensing her fear, sang back in secure, calm tones which helped her calm down enough to go back.

Then Ron had hissed his parents plan to her as they rushed through the station. She’d been boxed in by Weasley’s and told she was staying with them and was not to be returning to the Dursley's ever again. Holly hadn’t believed that to be a possibility especially after she’d asked Dumbledore to stay at Hogwarts at the end of her first year. He’d said he had to return to the Dursley’s and her aunt to keep the protection her aunt gave her, and she’d believed it. Until Ron reminded her shrewdly, it hadn’t done a thing against Tom Riddle, so there was no point in trying to keep it up.

So Holly was given Charlie’s old bed which had been moved into Ginny’s room. Ginny happily showed Holly which drawers and shelves were hers, and then unpacked and put up posters and made the room theirs instead of just Ginny’s. Hedwig got comfortable with Errol, and Holly with the chaotic schedule that was the Weasley family.

Truthfully, however, she couldn’t settle. She was constantly prepared for everything to go badly, that she’d anger Molly and Arthur enough that they’d kick her out. Every shattered plate, every sign that someone might be angry and Holly would try to hide. Molly constantly told her it was fine, the plate didn’t matter, that she was allowed to fight with Percy over the bathroom as much as the other children, that she could argue and complain about the chores because every child did. But she didn’t believe it.

She continued to cringe when Ron was grounded over back-talk to his mother. Or when the twins turned Ginny’s hair blue, and she chased them all over the house to shatter one of Molly’s potter plants. Or when George and Fred abandoned their de-gnoming chore, and Holly finished up alone until Arthur dragged the pair back by the ear with a bit of furious whisper and gesturing in Holly’s direction.

The vacation Arthur won had been nice, except Holly kept thinking about how much it cost to bring her along as well. So as much as she loved the plane and flying in general, she had spent the entire flight on pins and needles wondering how she could offer to pay for herself without offending and had the feeling it would be an impossible endeavor.

She exited the plane with Molly and felt another fissure of uncertainty enter her heart. Place her in front of Tom Riddle and a basilisk, and she was as solid as a rock. Ask her to face down Voldemort himself possessing her professor and Holly could handle it. But, ask her to live with a family that finally wanted her and… and she was a nervous wreck.

“Bill will be picking us up.” Molly explained to them, “hopefully Arthur and Ginny don’t take terribly long, I don’t want him to wait.”

Holly cringed again, she got along well with the Weasley’s so far. But Bill and Charlie, the eldest boys, she hadn’t yet met, and she was terrified they’d dislike her. She really wanted to meet them, but at the same time didn’t want to intrude in on the clear family vacation. This was Percy, George, Fred, Ginny, and Ron’s time to see their brother and she couldn’t help but feel she was intruding no matter how many times they told her she wasn’t.

Her soulmate hummed a diddy in her head, but for once, it didn’t help as Arthur and Ginny left the plane, and the group headed out together. Her hands wrung together as she attempted to keep to the back of the group as they went down the escalators and headed for immigration and then baggage claim. The entire time during both, the former as Arthur charmed the poor man to accept Holly who looked so different, and the second she found herself dragged to the front of the group by Ron or the twins. Her bag also happened to be last out, so Holly had no excuse to hide behind the ground because she had to find the bloody thing.

“AH!”

Holly flinched when Ron suddenly screamed as he went to close his bag which had opened at some point during the flight only to discover Scabbers had apparently snuck into his suitcase. Holly relaxed slightly as the group discussed the occurrence. Errol and Hedwig had flown to Bill’s directly for the trip, but Scabbers couldn’t go through the Muggle airports, so Ron had asked a girl named Luna who lived nearby to check on him. Apparently, Scabbers protested the idea.

“Better keep a closer eye on him,” Holly commented, finding it within herself to tease as Ron settled his pet on his shoulder and sheepishly blushed.

“We’ll have to owl him back in his carrier.” Molly sighed but accepted the addition because she had to. Thankfully for Ron, the incident was dismissed as Holly’s bag finally showed up and they could leave… to meet Bill.

Holly whimpered inaudibly following meekly as they left the airport in time to see a redhead with a ponytail holding out a sign with the word ‘Weasley +.’

Bill was… attractive. Holly immediately found herself blushing at the roguish look, and the bright red hair; a look that a future version of herself would say was her ‘type.’ But her at that moment realized with horror that she very much had a budding crush on the eldest Weasley. Something that did not go unnoticed by Molly, or Arthur. The young man who knew by then from his parents how truly nervous Holly was about the whole situation, she had not hidden it as well as she thought.

So as the Weasley’s walked up, Bill tossed aside his sign, bypassed his siblings and parents, and scooped Holly right off the ground. “Here’s my newest sister! Welcome to Egypt kiddo!” Holly squeaked blushing up to her roots as he spun her around in a tight hug. Embarrassed beyond belief at her reaction, she burrowed her head into her hands as they spun. Before he finally placed her back on her feet and leaned down to peer right into her eyes.

“Welcome to the family Holly, and remember… I’m the only brother you can trust.”

She giggled, and gave a nod in time for Bill to be tackled and sent to the ground by four of the five remaining Weasley kids. Percy alone remained behind patiently even if he looked like he too wanted to join the chaos and only narrowly refrained. Holly almost did as well, until Ron cried: “get him Holly!” and with only a moment's hesitation, tossed herself into the chaos and finally relaxed.

 

* * *

 

“Akmen-what?” Holly asked, ignoring Ginny who was a blushing giggling mess behind her. The ‘Mummy’ before her smiled kindly and corrected her with a gentle smile, which really only made Ginny worse.

“Akmenrah, a pleasure.” The living Mummy bowed before her and Holly thought for the first time that Egypt was a rather eventful place.

Holly’s vacation had been interesting so far. With the sudden introduction into puberty as she crushed hard on Bill even while her soulmate happily sang in her head unaware of her new realizations. She’d tried her best not to make it obvious but clearly failed when Molly calmly took her aside and gave her the speech and explained for the first time what a period was and how she was to react to it. Holly had been mortified, more so when Ginny had been dragged in as well because she’d passed by at the wrong time. After that, Holly couldn’t stop blushing for ages.

Bill had shown them all over the Muggle areas of the cities, portkeying and apparating them all over the country for the best dinners and sights. Before they’d gone on wizard tours across the countryside to see the pyramids. The first had Holly accidentally seeing a Muggle ghost trapped in some ancient artifact that Bill told her to ignore; apparently the yellow and purple-haired figure was a common one and cursed or something. The second pyramid had Fred getting cursed, which had Bill showing off the magic he knew to fix the problem - it did not help her crush.

After that, Arthur and the Weasley’s, sans Bill, had been carted off for an interview and a photoshoot with the daily prophet over Arthur’s winnings. Bill took her one on one to dinner, and she’d been a stuttering mess the whole time as Bill regaled her with various stories from his childhood. It gave her an interesting look into Charlie whom she hadn’t met, as well as a toddler version of Ron, Ginny, and a young Fred, George, and Percy. He’d also told her in several ways that she could rely on him no matter what, they were family now… that also didn’t help her crush.

After the rest of the Weasley’s had been released, they went to their third pyramid, which had the twins ‘accidentally’ locking Ginny and Holly behind a wall in a secret part of the pyramid. Trapped and too much of a Gryffindor to not explore, Holly and Ginny had ventured on to find a way out. Which had them running into the living Mummy, Akmenrah.

“How do you know English anyway?” Holly asked as the Pharaoh led her and Ginny to the exit.

“I might sleep during the day, but where my sarcophagus is placed allows me to hear your people venturing through my home. After enough years, I picked up the language well enough. And believe it or not, you are far from the first young witch to mistakenly get trapped in the tunnels.”

“Wow,” Holly noted as they turned down another path and Akmenrah turned off yet another trap complaining that his guards kept turning them on every time he turned them off. As they walked Holly saw a few drawings which looked like people singing and perked. “Hey, how do soulmates work if your a living Wizard Mummy?” she’d assumed he had to be magic to do what he was doing, even if he hadn’t confirmed it, he still wasn’t surprised by her wand when she’d mistakenly pulled it on him.

“The same as yourselves I should expect.” He gave them both a charming look, and Ginny squealed into her hands. “We sing our songs, and our mates hear them… or so I assumed.”

“Assumed?” they both asked, and Akmenrah gave them a boyish grin.

“When I lived I had no match to my voice, it was only after my death that I was able to hear them. I hear them grow now, and I am looking for a way to escape into the light to finally be with them.”

“You’re going to revive yourself?” Ginny asked, “and… go to your soulmate… that’s so romantic!”

“Perhaps.” He agreed as they went around a corner and he ran his fingers on a set of runes causing a rumble of stone to sound. Holly and Ginny turned and watched moonlight begin to filter in as a doorway opened and freedom was revealed. “But here is your way out, you should return to your parents… surely they are missing you.”

“Thanks!” Ginny chirped, “we will.”

She squeaked again when Akmenrah kissed her hand and bid her farewell before he turned to Holly to do the same. Holly allowed it not feeling as strongly with the Pharoah as Ginny clearly did, but still liking his company. After he pulled back, she allowed herself a single moment of hesitation before offering: “My… brother works in the pyramids if you want… maybe I could send him your way? Maybe you two could find a way to allow you to live during the day too?”

Akmenrah smiled warmly and suddenly surged forward to hug her. “My thanks, Miss Holly! I would gladly accept your offering.”

“I’ll… I’ll tell him then.” She said hugging the Mummy back before he returned her to the ground and they stepped back. “Goodluck with your soulmate though, if I don’t see you again.”

“And you with yours.” He returned easily.

Ginny and Holly left the pyramid with a final goodbye, and Ginny was quick to nudge her. “’My brother.’ Man mum and dad are gonna be thrilled! Bill too! He’s trying so hard to make you like him.”

“He is?!” She choked, and Ginny laughed.

“Oh sure, he told me he was scared you were nervous around him with all that stuttering you’re doing, and he’s our older brother, so he wants you to be able to come to him without being scared. This will make him so happy!”

“EH?!”

“Merlin Holly, with how nervous you are around Bill I can only imagine how bad you’ll be around Charlie, he’s covered in these awesome dragon scars!”

“…is… he, oh…?” her face went a bit airy and Ginny bust out laughing which continued until they heard Molly’s voice cry their names in relief as the family came running over while Holly melted down mentally over how obvious she’d been.

In the end, Ginny had been right, Bill had been thrilled when Holly asked if he’d meet Akmenrah - who would only help Bill’s work considering he was a magical living Pharaoh. And had promised to visit the Pharoah even as they finished off their trip and headed back a bare day and a half later. The family bade Bill a fond goodbye at the airport as their trip ended, with Bill promising to owl Holly about Akmenrah and Holly continuing to blush up a storm.

They returned to the daily prophet speaking of their trip, in which Holly’s name wasn’t spoken.

Followed by a week later, as a haggard figure plastered the front of every paper and every page. As a single gifted paper hammered a crucial nail into the wood of fate and caused Sirius Black to finally escape Azkaban, with a single thing on his mad mind.

 

* * *

 

It was Percy who opened the door. At the time Arthur was at work, Molly was grocery shopping, and Ginny had been at Luna’s house to hang out. The twins were ‘experimenting’ in their room which was why they hadn’t answered it, while Holly and Ron had been upstairs attempting to learn some muggle card games which Hermione had mentioned had her latest letter. She’d apparently learned to play with her father and wanted to try playing with Ron and Holly - mostly so she and Holly stopped loosing at chess. So Percy found himself on the front steps, in his pajama’s, before the minister for magic himself who was looking for Holly. And really, what could Percy do but invite the man in?

Holly was summoned with Ron close behind and settled in front of the minister as Percy frantically changed and made the tea he was suddenly desperately grateful that his mother had taught him to make. As such Holly stood there before a man she’d never met before and tried very hard not to make it seem like she was there because she'd run away.

“So… err… this man escaped, and you’re- err… checking on me?” she questioned with a twitching expression on her face. Holly desperately wished Arthur or Molly was home, or that Percy had any idea what to do either. The high pitch nervous laughter Percy was managing so far wasn’t helping at all.

“Yes, my dear! We were worried when we went to check on your Muggle relations home and discovered you weren’t there!”

“AH REALLY.” That was too loud, Holly cringed as Percy suddenly laughed sounding a bit hysterical and Ron started to blabber. How was she was only one good at covering her ass in this place! “Well you see, Ron invited me over last week, didn’t you Ron?”

“Y-yeah I did, I definitely did that last week, last week I did it!”

“He did, I helped with the letter!” Percy put forth, “the letter we wrote, to invite her. You know that one?”

“Yeah, I know that letter.”

Holly felt sweat build at the back of her neck as Ron and Percy dug their graves. “I’ve been here for the week, just after Ron got back from Egypt and it sounds like quite a trip! The ministry is so great for helping them with it.” She waved at Percy and Ron to shut them up, “Ron was telling me all about it, it’s almost like I was there.” Holly gave a polite smile as Percy violently twitched. “Didn’t my relatives tell you that?”

“Oh they did, they did!” the minister rushed to cover, pleased by her compliments and unwilling to tell her how quickly he’d been kicked out of her Muggle home. He’d never been so offended, but he didn’t want the girl-who-lived to know that, she could use it against him. Technically the woman had screamed at him that she had been with the ‘freakish redheads,’ and he’d inferred the truth from that.

“That’s good.” Holly actually relaxed at that already imagining Petunia and Vernon screaming at the minister, which might have actually been amusing to see.

“Oh, yes, it is… say, lad, when did you say your parents were going to get home?” the minister turned to a panicked and very red Percy.

“Err… that’s… the… my mother- she…” he whimpered wilting.

“About an hour, sir.” Ron piped up, “she’s just gone to the alley for groceries

“An hour, oh very well then.”

“Very well?” all three of them asked at the same time only to learn the man intended to wait. Holly was convinced by then Percy’s brain would have melted, but thankfully Molly returned early and was shockingly capable of stringing together a story based on the nonsense Holly rushed to tell her before she went to meet with the man himself. She, Percy, and Ron were, of course, kicked out. Not that it stopped them from all listening, including the twins who realized what was happening and Percy who was dying to know. So, laid out of the stairs lay the five of them as Molly met with the minister.

It was with Ron’s elbow in her side, Percy’s leg pressed to her own, George hovering over her head, and Fred squeezed underneath her that Holly learned the truth about her parents and their deaths. Of the secret keeper, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and the mad man who escaped an impenetrable prisoner just to hunt her down. Thankfully Holly was not even close to alone as the truth came out.

As George shifted dropping his chin onto her head and reminding her, he was there. As Ron reached sideways removing his elbow to wrap Holly in a one-armed hug. As Percy pressed his entire body against her side in a silent, stoic reminder that he accepted her into his family, and even with an inability to string together a story, he still wanted her there at the potential cost of his dream job. As Fred rolled all the way over just so he could hug her. And as a voice sang in her heard as always reminded her that even if this man had cost her, her parents, that she still had a family.

Soundlessly Holly sobbed as Molly assured the minister that Holly was well looked after for the summer, that she wouldn’t be left alone, and then bid the man a pushy goodbye. And she continued to cry as Molly found them all wrapped up on the stairs having realized early on they were listening in. Carefully Molly slid Percy and Ron to the side, George off Holly, then nudged Holly out of Fred’s arms and into her own. As Molly hummed soothingly rubbing Holly’s back as she wept and ensured that for once Holly had a mother’s arms to cry into as her world shattered.

 

* * *

 

  
Shanks sat with his back against the helm and his eyes on his journal as he softly hummed matching the tune his soulmate was humming. She often sang that particular tune, so Shanks knew the words - sort of - to sing along, though he didn’t actually know the meaning just yet.

_“Get up and go, gotta greet the rising sun.”_

He swayed a bit and grinned at the parchment before him. Over the last year, Shanks had been working on this little project every chance he could get. Day by day he went to Roger stealing words from his soulmates songs and getting the man to translate them for him all to learn his soulmates language. True the grammar was terribly difficult to understand, and true Shanks was missing a lot of words. Really his attempts were patchwork at best. But he was trying, and after a year he was doing quite well he thought.

Soon he’d be able to translate Binks Sake to surprise her. He just wanted Roger to check over his translation one last time before he actually sang the song for her.

Closing his journal, Shanks jumped to his feet and sent out a small burst of haki to locate his captain. He was still learning the art, and Rayleigh had warned him often not to over-use it due to his age. The burst revealed he was with Rouge in Crocus’ office, so Shanks started that way. Only a few minutes later, Shanks nearly tossed the door open without so much as knocking.

“-It’s not good-” Crocus cut off his sentence as Roger and Rouge spun to see Shanks standing there with a bright grin.

“Shanks.” Roger playfully glared at him, but Shanks faltered. Something was off about the three, something he couldn’t place. “How can I help?”

Dismissing it and trusting his captain Shanks said: “I finished translating Binks sake, can you check it on last time?”

Roger inclined his head and moved toward Shanks, “of course, give it here.”

Crocus made an aborted movement and frustrated sound, but Roger completely ignored the man. While Rouge likewise stepped forward, both of them ignoring the doctor which certainly wasn’t the first time Shanks knew.

“Is this for your soulmate?” Rouge asked as Roger sang through it testing the song, amazingly Shanks was pleased to say he could understand the words coming out of Roger’s mouth, unlike the other two present… if his translations were correct, that was.

“Yes, once I learn the language, we can sing each other better hints. Right now, I know nothing about her!” Shanks made a frustrated noise and Rouge giggled her hand covering her mouth. It was a way to cheat the system she knew. While you couldn’t sing out your direct location, you could sing out obvious hints about yourself. When they’d been teenagers Rouge had sung about ladies with rouge lips and pink hair to give Roger an indication of what she’d looked like. While Roger had sung countless pirate songs, and one particular farmer's song which involved a straw hat.

“It sounds right lad.” Roger finished the song and handed the journal back to Shanks, “try it out for her.”

“Thanks, captain.” Shanks backed off a bit holding the papers tight in his grip a burst of nervousness crept into his heart. He… he was wary. Years she’d not sung to him, and Shanks had no idea why- what if this scared her-

“Lad… she’ll be thrilled.” Roger assured him before Shanks spiraled too hard. “She’s destined to be yours, she won’t turn you away.”

“But what if she stops singing again…” he couldn’t stop but voice his fear.

“I doubt it.” Rouge said, “likely that had little to do with you, and more to do with an outside reason.”

“She’ll appreciate the effort you put in.” Roger agreed, “now, sing!”

“Right.” He flexed his fingers, “okay.” He turned rushing for the perfect place to sing to her, leaving the three adults abruptly.

Crocus eventually stepped forward, pushing away from his desk and moving his hand which had been hiding the results of his latest test from Shanks’ eye. He went to speak, only to be interrupted by Rouge. “He’s adorable Shanks, young love… I can’t wait to see the young lady that matches him.”

Roger’s lips quirked and he leaned over to kiss his wife on the cheek: “she’ll have to be quite the creature to match that boy, they’ll change the currents those two.”

Crocus closed his eyes at the wistful tone to Roger’s words because that future would not be one he’d see: “Roger… we need to talk about this.”

“No, I don’t think we do.” He turned and grabbed Rouge’s hands, tugging her toward the door, “We’ve got a song to listen to, right love?”

 

* * *

  
A crack of a breaking twig sounded in the darkness outside the burrow. Holly leaning against the tree at the farthest end of the property glanced up. Dark as it was Holly couldn’t make out much past the grass. She knew during the day the hills lay out toward Luna Lovegood’s home - whom she’d briefly met several days previous - and it was covered in bramble and enchanted plants. Holly had been warned several times against venturing out there, she’d been told quite a few stories about Ginny, George, and Bill all getting lost and trapped until Molly or Arthur could rescue them. She was also aware that hearing such a specific noise meant that it was likely she was about to be jumped by one of the gnomes, coyotes, or rabbits that lived in the bushes.

Holly closed her book, the first magical book she owned that wasn’t a school book. She’d gotten it for her birthday, and it was all about the legend of the high-elves and how they might have left their world for another. Holly hadn’t quite had the chance to read it yet because of the chaos of the Weasley home. A disorder that most of her loved, it was warm, active, and always bustling. But that a small part of her was exhausted with.

Holly never got a moment to herself, not even in the bathroom was she ever left alone, and it was quickly draining to someone who had spent so very long isolated. So despite the danger on her life, Holly liked to sneak out after dark, sit by the tree, and read in the dying light of the sun. And yet, despite that danger, Holly never imagined that snapping twig was anything but a small animal.

Technically, she hadn’t been wrong exactly.

The bushes shifted and rattled as Holly slowly closed her book eyes near the roots in preparation. Gnomes she’d learned were small monsters, and she was in no mood to deal with one right then especially since their scratches needed to be treated, and she wasn’t exactly allowed to be in the yard. It was actually her first act of rebellion that Molly and Arthur knew about and were trying to encourage. Which was why Molly was sitting under a disillusion charm on the stairs to ensure no one snatched her new daughter from the yard.

Thankfully for Holly, it was not a gnome that poked its nose out of the bushes. A medium-sized black form crawled out of of the darkness and onto the grass, littered with cuts and scrapes from the plants, among other things. The black dog flopped out before her in exhaustion. Holly sat frozen with her book in her lap as she took in the dogs pitiful appearance and cringed in sympathy. Large gaping spots of fur was missing, what had to be mange covered large areas of its body. She could clearly see the ribs and couldn’t help but wonder how the dog had even walked with how emancipated it’s whole body was. Blood sluggishly fell from new and old scrapes that to a sailor would scream scurvy on a human. It lay there too exhausted to move, and for all Holly knew, it could have just died, she had no idea… but she had to check.

Carefully and slowly, Holly put down her book and crept into a squatted position as she crawled toward the dog. Soothingly she hummed the song her soulmate sang that always made her feel better. The dog slid an eye open, and it’s tail swatted the ground in a weak wag, so Holly dared to move closer and sink her hands into the fur on its head. “It’s okay.” She soothed, “I have you.”

She glanced toward the burrow and bit her lip. Daring to read outside was a small step to bringing an animal into the house, but if she didn’t then… then it would probably die, and Holly didn’t want that. “Okay… okay…” she carefully eased her arms under the dog's body and lifted it up with a lot of awkwardness. It was thin, yes, but it was still a rather large breed, and she was only thirteen. Wobbling and nearly tripping several times Holly made it to the door not realizing Molly had spotted her, the dog, and had rushed inside to ‘meet her.’ Personally, Molly wasn’t thrilled, but she likewise didn’t want to turn the dog away when Holly was only trying to help. They were trying to encourage her to ask them for help, and this was a perfect chance to see if she would or not.

Holly by then made her way into the burrow and gently placed the dog on the floor beside the couch. She was unwilling to dirty up the sofa with the dog even if she’d seen George drop an entire experiment on the cushions just a week previous, which caused it to smell for days. With the dog on the floor, Holly leaned back and hesitated, she could hear Molly in the kitchen but was incredibly nervous to call on the woman for help.

“What is that?!” Exclaimed Ron’s voice and Holly flinched as she realized he’d come down the stairs intending to fetch her before it got actually dark outside.

“…a dog.”

“A grim!” Ron corrected in a high pitched tone, “where did you get it?!”

“He came out of the bushes, and he’s just a dog, Ron.” Holly eyed the dog trying to figure a breed but couldn’t due to its state, “he’s… a lab and… err… a… something else.”

“Merlin Holly.”

“He needs help,” she insisted, “do…. Do think Miss- Molly will be mad?”

“Well.” Ron approached eyes intent on the dog, “I dunno, they said no when Ginny brought in that gnome… but it was a gnome, so no one was surprised. There was also the spider incident-” he made a face, “-thank Merlin they didn’t let the twins keep that one. Merlin above, it really looks like a grim. What is your luck?”

“Potter luck.” She quoted Hermione quickly as she ran a hand in the dog's fur when it got a bit twitchy at Ron’s voice. Its eyes were full and bright and were intent on Ron in an odd way.

“Right, forgot about that… well, it is in the house now, so the best we can do is ask. At worst she’ll probably send it to a magi-vet. Which I think I need to bring Scabbers too, he’s been so sick lately. I think maybe the trip made him sick.” Ron glanced toward the kitchen, ready to call his mother when Ginny came around the corner with a limp form in her hands.

“Hey Ron, I think Scabbers is-” whatever she was going to say Holly would never know. Not as the dog too weak to walk mere minutes before launched to its feet and bodily threw itself, jaws snapping, at Ginny. Ron was knocked sideways, sent flying into the coffee table when it shoved him to the side, and Ginny screamed as Scabbers bit her and the dog slammed into her chest feet first. Teeth caught air as Scabbers went spinning and Ginny was sent crashing into the family clock. Glass shattered, yells echoed upstairs in concern as the dog bounced off Ginny to chase down Scabbers.

Under the table they went as they quickly rounded the room. Ron was torn between checking on Ginny who was sobbing, and now blood covered, or saving his rat which was running for its life as the living room was steadily destroyed. Holly didn’t hesitate as she dove for the dog, as bad as Ginny was, Holly’s entire being was frantic with how badly she’d get in trouble for bringing the dog inside the house in the first place-

Molly stormed into the room with her wand up- Holly caught the dog around the back legs a second too slow. And the dog’s sharp teeth crunched into Scabber’s small body. Someone screamed as the rat gave a dying screech as teeth slid right into its lungs, it might have been Holly or a horrified Ron, but their cry was nothing compared to the screams they both released as Scabber’s vanished and a bloated fat man replaced him.

The body hit the ground, the man already dead when the dog had caught him, with his rib cage caved in.

Holly screamed, kicking frantically away from the stranger with the dog still in her arms. It had utterly relaxed now that its mission was complete and allowed her to drag it back toward the broken couch. Which was when Arthur, the twins, and Percy came pounding down the stairs tripping over each other in their haste.

They came upon the living room destroyed, Ginny sobbing in a shattered clock, Ron turning over and throwing up, Molly too shocked to understand what happened, and Holly sitting there with a filthy black dog in her arms.

 

* * *

 

Arthur often forgot his mother had been a Black, but at that moment, he was very aware of it.

Upon finding the situation in the living room, Arthur had raced into emergency mode and had taken charge. He’d bid the softer George to collect the story from Holly who he believed to be the most functional at that moment, Fred to remove Molly from the situation, Percy to handle Ron before he’d rushed to Ginny’s side to discover if she needed the hospital or not. Thankfully most of her wounds were superficial, and once Fred had calmed Molly, she had been able to heal Ginny. Which left Arthur to handle… the body.

How the calm afternoon had resulted in a corpse in his living room, well that had come from Holly. But he’d greatly overestimated how composed she’d been at the time.

Sobbing and nearly incoherent George had held her and the dog which refused to be parted from her side as she gasped out the story filled with more apology than information. The story seemed simple enough, she’d found a dog, brought it in to be looked after and it had done after Scabbers. That alone Arthur understood, the dog had to have some terrier in it, and Arthur knew they hunted rats. And that the dog got hold of the sickened rat was likewise understandable. The problem was after the dog caught the ‘rat.’

“No Holly.” He soothed brushing her tears away, “it’s alright sweetheart, it’s a good thing you brought the dog in. If you hadn’t, we never would have known he wasn’t a rat.” And that thought he shoved back for when she wasn’t in front of him, “you did so good Holly, so good.”

She gasped and hiccuped, frantically wiping her face and glanced to the body. A reminder that Arthur had a corpse in the living room and all the children had seen it. Only two remained in the area with it now, but that was definitely a problem he had to deal with. “b-but, who is he?”

Arthur grimaced and glanced at the body, at the unmistakable face of a man he’d thought he’d known well and the truth edged at the corners of his mind. “That… that is Peter Pettigrew.” He admitted honestly. George’s eyes went huge, and both children froze looking at him. Arthur nodded and calmly explained: “we knew each other very well, he was part of the Order during the first war… we called each other friends, I… mourned him when he died... when I thought he died.”

“But dad-” George blurted before snapping his mouth closed as Holly finished the thought in all their heads.

“If he’s- he was alive, then how come everyone thinks Sirius Black killed him.” Her hand absently sank into the dog’s head, and it gave a snuffling satisfied sound in its sleep.

“That I don’t know, but I believe whatever happened twelve years ago was far more complicated than I first thought.”

“It can’t be a coincidence that Black escaped now could it?” George pressed for information Arthur didn’t have, “do you think… “George had a sharp mind, and he could guess, but there was no way of knowing the truth. Not since Pettigrew was dead and Black was on the run.

“We can’t know.” Arthur said as he stood his back cracking as he got up, “now you two, head to your rooms… and give the dog a bath and some food.”

“Wait, we’re keeping it?!” George blurted as Holly obediently stood dragging George with her.

“We are,” Arthur confirmed ruffling Holly’s hair as she calmed and placed himself between the kids and the body. He hadn’t lied to Holly, it was a good thing what the dog had done. But what Arthur hadn’t mentioned was how furious he was that the rat that slept in both Percy and Ron’s beds all throughout their lives was a fully grown man. The very idea had him enraged, he couldn’t breathe from the anger of it and couldn’t express how pleased that the random arrival of the dog had revealed this. True, the death was unfortunate… but as he’d said, his mother had been a Black and no Black was utterly sane, not even him.

Arthur nudged the pair out of the room and was left alone with the corpse, a corpse that should not exist. Legally he ought to call the Aurors then about the situation, but even if Arthur worked for the ministry, he was aware of its faults. A body in his home, the corpse of Peter Pettigrew around the girl-who-lived, if Lucius discovered this Arthur’s family would be destroyed and he knew it. If this truth came out so too would his kidnapping of Holly, willing or not, that might result in a trip to Azkaban.

Arthur wouldn’t risk it.

“Levicorpus.” He intoned wand pointed at the body.

His mother was a Black, and this was not the first body he’d… disposed of, he had fought in a war after all.

“Dear?” Molly whispered after Arthur returned alone without a single spec of dirt on his person.

“Yes, Molly-wobbles?” he greeted, noting that the living room had been set right and the blood wholly removed from the carpet.

“Do you think Sirius could be innocent?” she questioned in the darkness of the room, the kids long asleep as the witching hour came upon the house-hold.

“I think… it’s possible, but between his innocence and Holly’s safety, she comes first.” As all the kids did.

Together Arthur and Molly discussed the event Molly never asking where the body ended up, while Arthur didn’t question how easily Molly removed blood stains from the house as he hadn’t the first time she’d needed to. A decade after the war and signs of it lingered on and always would. As they chatted about what to do about the kids and what they’d seen the children slept on. George filled with theories and plans, Fred curled around him already haunted by the sight. With Ron who had crept into bed with Percy, and Percy who hadn’t complained as they shared an equal thought about the rat they thought to be a pet. Or with Ginny and Holly slept feeling secure together in the same bed with a large black dog situated happily between them, at peace mentally for the first time in twelve years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Shanks is actually speaking English now or singing it. So they'll have a method of direct communication in the next chapter. Also, this summer ended up taking a lot more of a chapter than I first thought because Arthur and Molly up and decided to take over. Though I can't honestly say I'm upset, it was fun to write. 
> 
> (To those that don't read the other soulmate fics in the collection, I recently destroyed my laptop's battery and it took a while to get it fixed, so thanks all for your patience and the lovely comments which continue to make my day!)


	5. If You're Not The One

“Making a delivery… across the sea? No, ‘bringing it across the sea.’” Shanks pressed his hands together, turning the tips of his fingers white with the pressure and exhaled. For several days he’d had the song ready; Roger had checked it over and confirmed it. Shanks knew his soulmates language, knew how to sing it to her, he’d translated his favorite song, the first she’d ever sung back to him. It was ready, he was ready, but his nerves seemed to disagree. Feet shuffling Shanks kicked at the sand under his feet and made an aggravated noise. He was being a wimp, chickening out on something so… huge. Shanks grabbed his hair, tugging it, and groaned loudly unafraid that anyone would see his moment of weakness.

The captain had stopped them at a spring island in the middle of a fall Brew-fest festival. Roger and Rouge had been equally giddy as they rushed off the ship, arm in arm ready to try all the foods, drinks, and activities. Truthfully the crew hadn’t been able to tell who had been more excited about it, Roger, Rouge, or Rayleigh. The entire group had split into separate directions once off the Oro Jackson. Buggy had broken away quickly, no doubt to take advantage despite being underage, and Shanks intended to do the same… once he’d done what he’d been putting off for weeks.

Today was his perfect chance. He’d found a private beach, the sun was up, his soulmate had been cheerfully humming all morning, so she was in a good mood. He knew the exact words he needed to say, Shanks was ready.

“Just do it.” He told himself and shook out his hands. Righting his stances, staring out at the ocean waves, hearing the distant music of the festival, Shanks opened his mouth and hoped for the best. If she were his, she’d be happy about the effort he’d put in, glad to finally communicate. He’d finally find her and her island, they’d be together, and he’d show her everything that Roger was currently showing Rouge.

“Yohohoho, yohohoho.”

A whole world away, Holly followed behind Ron and his family with her trunk clicking along behind her. She had already done the goodbyes, the first she’d ever given with an actual family, and a place to miss while away for the year. Molly had kissed her forehead goodbye, and Arthur had hugged her tighter than she’d ever been hugged before. Both of them had bid her farewell with one final warning about Sirius Black, one more to add to her collection since the man escaped a month previously. Holly had nodded along, but hadn’t actually promised to stay away from the man as Molly and Arthur wanted her too.

The summer had been an eventful one starting with her kidnapping, though she’d given permission for that. Holly had met a living Mummy whom with she now had a pen-pal. Discovered she had a thing for redheads. And watched a man die in front of her. One would think, as Hermione did, that she’d be terribly bothered by the latter. Except for the fact that Pettigrew was not actually the first person Holly had seen die; this one wasn’t even directly her fault, the dog did it!

Really, from the Pettigrew incident, Holly had learned a bit about her parents. She’d gained new information, and even more questions about the night her parents died, and she became the girl-who-lived. Such as the fact that it hadn’t been an accident that Voldemort died, it had been planned, because why else would they need to go into hiding? So as Molly and Arthur had her promising not to hunt down Black, Holly knew she was already planning on doing exactly that - if only to learn the real truth. This was about her past, and her future, Holly needed to know the what happened, there was no way around it.

Outside the heap of new information; Ginny had a brand new problem for her squib councilor. The Weasley's now knew that Arthur and Molly were a lot less loose with laws than earlier assumed. And George’s had a new obsession with learning the truth - he’d be an excellent accomplice to her plans Holly decided - she had also gained a pet. The dog had been named Padfoot at George and Fred’s insistence, and he was recovering slowly. He’d gained back some weight hiding the ribs all but stabbing out at them when Holly found him. They’d shaved him free of the knots and had a proper vet help them with the mange and fleas. His fur was steadily growing back revealing black fuzz, darker than the chocolate color he’d possessed before after being covered in filth. And his limp had faded after they healed the crack in his left back leg bone. So physically, Padfoot was doing well, but mentally… he was… off.

The Weasley’s didn’t notice it because as purebloods, they’d only ever see the highly intelligent crups before. Holly, who’d grown up running from bulldog and hearing her aunt Marge endlessly going on about raising them, quickly realized Padfoot was different. He was a muggle breed, a Wolf-hound mixed with a touch of Labrador the vet had said, but he didn’t act like, for lack of a better word, normal. Padfoot had intense nightmares every single night, ones that would wake him up and send him into howling fits or into a flight that had him careening outside into the brambles by the property line. His fits could only be calmed by Holly or Ginny, for when he was like that, he didn’t respond to anyone else.

During the day, Padfoot had a blankness in his eyes and mind. Sometimes it took quite a few calls of his name to get him to respond to it, and he’d turn to look at Holly as if he had no idea where he was. When not doing this, he attached himself to Holly, following her everywhere he went and had him growling at every perceived danger his mind came up with, such as a leaf, the breeze, the sun, Fred on occasion.

Percy was convinced he was her familiar, a stupid one, but one none the less. This had severely angered Hedwig, who had taken serious offense and had turned on Percy in revenge for his comment. Despite that, Molly and Arthur had agreed, or perhaps they just didn’t want to deal with Padfoot’s nightmares when Holly was at school, so they’d personally contacted McGonagall and gotten permission for the dog to go to Hogwarts. Therefore, as Holly boarded the Hogwarts express, four paws padded along behind her as Padfoot’s long tail weakly swished.

The one bright side to all this Holly decided was that Padfoot got on amazingly with Hermione’s new pet cat, better perhaps than even Ron did. Holly personally had no idea what she’d do if the pets didn’t, considering she and Hermione shared a dorm room.

Boarding the train behind her best friends, Holly watched as Hermione rearranged her cat carrier and turned to shot Padfoot a look. “He’s the weirdest dog ever.” She commented already aware of the circumstance in which they found him. Ron and Holly had alerted her to the Pettigrew incident when they’d gone shopping for their school supplies. Something Holly only barely had permission to do considering the Sirius problem.

 _“Yohohoho, yohohoho.”_ Holly’s eyes crinkled as her soulmate’s voice picked up in her head, he’d been quiet lately, and she wasn’t used to the silence. She was glad to hear from him again.

“He’s not weird, that furball is weird.” Ron snarked, he was very much not a cat person the girls realized. Then again, he might have also been bothered by the fact that Holly and Hermione both had pets now, and his turned into a fat man who was potentially a mass murderer. Holly had personally offered Ron a replacement in an owl they’d seen at the shop, but he’d refused.

“He is weird, and so is Crookshanks.” Holly took a more neutral stance, which basically was that both animals were beyond bizarre from a muggle-raised standpoint. Hermione’s cat was a highly intelligent miniature lion, and her dog was as daft as a doorknob with what had to be PTSD if he were human. “But their still good pets.” She reached down and ruffled Padfoot’s ears causing him to yip and dance a bit in place before his attention wandered almost instantly to the floor and a scent he had caught. He circled the ground with his ears pointed toward her, and she rolled her eyes, walking down the corridors as her soulmate reach the first lyric of the song. The words she didn’t and might not even know the meaning of; the words Hermione and Ron had long learned despite it being another language and, it was not her soulmates language that slipped from his lips.

_“Gather up all of the crew, it’s time to ship out binks brew-”_

Holly tripped over her own two feet. Her hand helplessly reached out, catching nothing but air as she attempted to stall her fall. Arms windmilling Holly screeched and collided right into Ron, tangling together they crashed to the floor. Hermione watched this all with a perplexed expression. Flat on her stomach with her arms out, Holly stared forward, nose to nose with Padfoot, who was giving her a clear expression that said, ‘now why did you go an do that for?’

And her soulmate sang the next line in heavily accented English.

“Pen,” she gasped out, “I need a- ‘Mione! quill!” Holly scrambled, tangling herself further with Ron, who had only just tried to get back to his feet as she hurled herself at her trunk and wrenched it open. Beside them, a compartment door opened, and Pansy Parkinson stuck her head out, to immediately roll her eyes at the chaos as Holly hurled her clothes to the side, desperately looking for a quill and ink. Why didn’t she just have a pen, that would be so much easier!

“Why am I not surprised. It’s the Gryffindorks.” She sneered at them, and Ron blushed bright red in embarrassment, that tripled as one of Holly’s undergarments hit his face. Pansy scoffed and slammed the door on them as Holly gave a triumphant scream and slammed a parchment down in the middle of the floor to furiously start writing.

“Holly!” Ron tossed the fabric away from him, and Hermione caught it rushing it back into Holly’s trunk, both covering for her, and Padfoot gave a very human-sounding snicker.

“Shush!” she slapped at Ron when he got too close and focused her attention on the song in her head, the song her soulmate was singing. In English.

“What is going on, Holly?” Hermione asked, closing Holly’s trunk.

“He’s singing in English.” She pressed the parchment she found to the floor and cursed every god that existed that she didn’t have an actual pen. Instead, Holly was left with a quill and ink, and with extreme chicken scratch she hurriedly wrote the song as he sang it. The ink went everywhere, it brushed her nose, coated her hands, and went all over the parchment. But most of the song Holly was able to write, most of it.

“What?!”

“In English?” Hermione knelt beside her in the train corridors as Padfoot stared at the paper as well, seemingly just as curious as Hermione was. While Ron finally wrestled himself to his feet. “’ Say so long to port’s renown.’” Hermione read as Holly wrote, then it clicked, “oh, oh! Bink’s sake! The song he’s always singing, oh, this is brilliant!”

Hermione flopped onto the ground beside her, set aside the cat carrier and her own trunk, and rushed to pull out one of her many journals to rewrite Holly’s chicken-scratch. Working Hermione began jotting down out the words they did now and started to compare words to see which words she could translate right there.

“Uh… confused?” Ron leaned against the wall as the train shoved into motion, he sighed as it did. He had a feeling they weren’t going to be moving from the hallway any time soon, and they didn’t have a compartment if there were any available in the first place.

“It’s Holly’ soulmate, he’s translated his language into English. How did he do that!? I’ve been trying for years. Oh, but this is amazing, if we know what some of his words mean then we can translate our songs into his language and we can give him hints about how to find you!” She, of course, had been doing the very same for years, which is why she knew her soulmate was dark-haired, dark-eyed, and went to Durmstrang. She was clever with her hints, unlike Ron, who didn’t bother, convinced fate would present her to him when he was ready. Hermione didn’t understand that point of view, they knew Ron’s soulmate went to Hogwarts, and he wasn’t even a bit curious?

“That’s great… are we going to find somewhere to sit?”

“No!” Holly said as the song ended, “I need him to- oh! Yohohoho Yohohoho. Gather… uhh… up all the crew?” She sang loudly in the middle of the hallway urging her soulmate to sing the song again. She shot a look at the words she had so far and attempted to stitch them together with the language he spoke so he’d fill in the missing spots for her. It was a mess, really, but it was her only chance.

Ron and Hermione exchanged a look as she did this. At the girl who in their first year couldn’t sing at all, who even the year previous refused to sing in public unless it was with people she knew well, as that same girl sang out loud where anyone could hear her. The pair smiled fondly as Holly connected to her soulmate.

Sitting on the beach, Shanks didn’t disappoint. He’d managed to get through the entire song without his soulmate joining him, and natural anxiety had him worry that perhaps he’d gotten the words wrong. That was until Shanks finished petering off, and she responded. Singing louder than he’d ever heard her sing before, putting every effort into the words, and royally destroying any sense of coherency to Bink's sake, she mixed his common, with her language. It was a demand for him to do it again, and Shanks’ grinned utterly fondly over it.

She was adorable, and he was half in love with her already. All Shanks wanted to do was to bask in the chaos of what she was doing. To take in the moment and just remember every botched note and confused word. He wanted to memorize the way each translated word she sang sounded just a touch different than what he’d done. As she showed him how it was supposed to sound even as she buttered his own language.

Shanks laughed, checked his journal, and joined in.

“Day and night to our delight, The voyage never ends.” They sang together. One standing on the beach with his eyes closed listening, the other furiously writing with ink-stained hands until they were both singing entirely in Holly’s language.

 

* * *

 

“Can we get off the floor now?” Ron asked after Holly had the entire song written down, once in her own chicken scratch and four times in Hermione’s careful printing. The girls sat knee to knee in the corridor, their heads together as they pieced together the words that were the same and tried to translate the language.

“We should pick a song to try and translate next,” Hermione suggested ignoring Ron entirely, “something easy, but a hint to where you are?”

“Not the school song,” Holly figured, “it’ll be impossible to translate the houses without more of his words. Unless we translate most of it. If we work with him to translate the rest… maybe?”

“But without being able to show him what the words mean, that’ll be difficult, not impossible, of course, but difficult none the less.”

“I want to try.” Holly grinned at her friend, and Ron sighed, opening his trunk to fish out the lunch Molly had made him and Holly, enough for them and Hermione. He slowly opened the sandwich then offered a bite to Padfoot, who had taken to napping at his side.

“Logical,” Hermione tapped the papers, “the grammar to his language is so confusing!”

“That might just be English, actually.”

“Oh! You’re right, perhaps there are different rules to the language, like Japanese?”

“I can’t speak Japanese…”

“Well, neither can I, but I heard it’s relatively easy to learn with enough effort.”

“That’s every language, ‘Mione.” Ron drawled when he choked on his sandwich as the train slammed on the breaks, lurching violently, the three of them and everyone else on board were thrown to the side. Flopped on top of each other for the second time that day; the group, which not included Hermione, groaned. The lights shut down a split second later, plunging them into blackness, the only light came from the sun hidden by the thick rain clouds overhead.

Struggling in the dark, the pair righted themselves.

“What the bloody-”

“Ouch! Ron, that’s my hand!”

“Lumos.” Hermione’s wand lit up, quickly followed by Ron’s and Holly’s as they each took their feet. Nearby heads poked out of compartments as the students looked out to see what had happened. Closest to where they sat, Pansy joined that number, her eyes narrowed upon seeing they were still directly outside her compartment.

“I thought I told you Gryffindorks to get lost.” Pansy snarked, causing Holly to make a face of perplexed confusion, that was not a magical saying. But the thought passed when the temperature abruptly plummeted. In seconds Holly found she could physically see her breath, a moment after that, ice started to crawl up the windows closest to them, and all the hair on Holly’s arms stood on end. At her feet, Padfoot whimpered and shoved into her knees, nearly sending her to the ground again.

“What?” Hermione exhaled as the three of them and Pansy, all stared glanced down the corridors looking for a cause.

Toward the front of the train, it appeared. A shadow slid in, a form floating above the ground as if caught by the wind when no wind existed. A shiver raced down Holly’s spawn as some innate instinct deep within her screamed out in warning. Then it’s hooded head turned towards them and took in a long rattling breath.

“Oh, Circe…” Pansy breathed in, “get in, right now!”

Its body followed its head, and it started forward, floating, gliding towards them. Holly needed no further prompting; she scrambled for Pansy’s door dragging a frantic struggling Padfoot with her. She abandoned her trunk completely and hurled herself into the seat beside two Slytherin’s. Ron and Hermione were a bare step behind, and they, with Pansy, flung the door closed.

The two Slytherin’s inside the compartment spoke as one:

“What is it-”

“Pansy, what?”

“Barricade it!” Pansy screeched with full-on panic racing through her brain. Trunks were rushed forward, thrown on top of each other, and one of the Slytherins spelled the door to lock it before the pair turned to Pansy in question.

“Pansy!?” demanded one of the snakes, a boy with dark skin and piercing eyes.

“Dementor- there is a bloody Dementor on the train.” Ron gasped for breath as the creature floated in front of the door. The six in the compartment shrank back silenced immediately as it rattled out a breath. Its hand reached down toward the handle achingly slowly, and the Slytherin’s spell locking the door snapped as the door started to open.

Holly scarcely realized what was happening as Pansy pressed into Ron frantic to get away from the door, as Ron’s hands automatically came around her purely because she was there. Padfoot was crying, cowering in front of her, but his hackles were on end despite his terror. Hermione’s Lumos extinguished as clawing despair reached into their hearts, and they were plunged into pitch-black darkness. Tthe door slowly opened, pushing aside the trunks as if they weighed less than air.

“Yoho-hoho.” Holly desperately sang, her voice shook like nothing before, and the door opened, revealing the creature.

Someone was screaming-

“Yoho… ho…” the dementor fixed its attention on her, and it inhaled-

 _“Please, not Holly- Please! Take me instead, anyone but Holly-”_ everything went black.

Shanks at the same moment felt higher than the moon as he left the beach to join in the festivities, and hopefully avoid being caught by Rayleigh; when he stopped. Her voice, shaking and terrified echoed in his head like a warning. No louder than a whisper, the start of Bink’s sake began and stopped dead, as if she’d been cut off by force. Something in his chest froze, something beyond his own emotions, something almost supernatural. And he knew deep down it was a warning.  
  
His hands were shaking as he opened his mouth and sang the next line, as he waited.

Nothing answered him.

“No, no… no no no no.” His mind was on repeat, on the terror in her tone as she sang the line.

“Yohohoho,” he insisted, and no one answered. “Answer me!” It wasn’t even in song, just a desperate cry.

But she didn’t.

And Shanks learned then for the first time how helpless he could be.

 

* * *

 

  
Consciousness came to Holly slowly.

There were fogged voices speaking above her, a gloom to her being that she couldn’t explain. There was a cold nose pressed into her palm, and someone's hand at her back. But all this was muted, it was distant to her mind. Holly felt raw, felt like she was actively being dragged back toward unconsciousness- she just wanted to stay asleep, to never wake up again. It was like her cupboard; the Dursley’s were outside speaking calmly, and her body was a mess of bloodied wounds, and he was-

 _“Yo… ho… ho… ho-”_ he cut off, rasping as if he’d been singing for hours non-stop, and as Holly listened, he repeated the line, again and again. The drag on her consciousness slipped, and voices cut through to her.

“Is she going to be okay?”

“She almost lost her soul, Weasley, of course she’s not.”

_“Yo… ho… ho… ho.”_

“Shut up Zabini, how dare you-”

“Ron, calm down. Holly will be fine… she just… needs some rest.”

“And a healer.”

“Zabini-”

“I’m not messing around Weasley, Potter is not ‘okay.’ She needs medical treatment, and she needs it now. I can’t believe we have no proper precautions against this sort of thing.”

“Precautions against a dementor? Blaise, I’m exactly Dumbledore’s fan, but you can’t exactly blame him for not expecting this.”

_“Yo… ho… ho… ho.”_

A dog whimpered, and the nose pressed closer into her hands.

“It’s beyond the dementor Daph. We have no way of getting to the school, no way of calling for help. We’re left with what? The seventh years to help? They’re too busy consoling the first years and other students, eight of which passed out on top of Potter.”

“There was that professor-”

“Oh yeah, ‘have some chocolate, I’ll be right back.’ Super helpful that one.”

“At least he knows more then Lockheart!”

“Everyone knows chocolate helps against dementors, that’s not a stamp of his skill!”

“Well… you- I… shut up Zabini!”

“Oh, very articulate.”

“Blaise… stop.”

_“Yoho… ho… ho.”_

Holly forced her eyes open and hissed as the light made her brain scream in pain. She clammed her eyes closed again as the compartment freaked.

“HOLLY?!”

“Are you alright? Can you hear us?”

“Don’t crowd her, she just regained consciousness you Gryffin-morons.”

“Light,” she whimpered. It immediately got darker, allowing Holly to open her eyes and accept her glasses, which Hermione handed her. This allowed Holly to see that she was surrounded by concerned faces. Three Slytherin’s, Ron, Hermione, and Padfoot were all watching her as if she were made of china. Pansy, the boy she had to assume was Blaise Zabini after hearing the conversation, and a blonde were all trying very hard not to look concerned, but Holly could see right through them.

“What… happened?” Holly managed to ask rubbing at her chest and the excruciating pain burning at her heart.

“A dementor got on the train,” Hermione began, “it was looking for Black… but it was oddly focused on you.”

“Bloody thing almost sucked out your soul,” Ron added, “we saw…” he cut off and swallowed, “we saw it leave your mouth and…”

_“Yo… ho… ho… ho.”_

“-And then the dog charged it,” Zabini finished, “that thing is definitely your familiar; otherwise, it’s the stupidest beast in the world.” Padfoot, as if to prove a point, allowed his tongue to loll out of his mouth, which just screamed moron. The Slytherin's scoffed and sat back, allowing Holly to realize she’d been placed on the floor under a pillow and blanket, neither of which she recognized.

“That would be mine,” The blonde commented, “I’d appreciate if you got off them before more of your stink gets on them.” She held a hand out, and scoffed as if she really didn’t care, as if she hadn’t been endlessly worried when Holly dropped at the dementor's feet. As if she hadn’t almost seen the girl-who-lived, a child her own age nearly kissed by a rogue dementor out of Azkaban. As if she hadn’t given Holly the pillow and blanket she’d had since she’d been an infant just so Holly’s head wasn’t against the floor.

“Sorry…” Holly reached under her and handed the items back so she could sit crossed-legged on the floor.

“Whatever.”

“Sorry again, but who are you?”

Fury crossed the girl's face before she snarked: “Daphne Greengrass, I assure you it’s not a pleasure.”

“Never mind her,” Zabini interrupted before Ron could snap again, he leaned forward and held out a chocolate bar… for some reason. Holly gave him a confused look, and he scowled. “It seems I am finding myself proven wrong, someone doesn’t know, and of course it’s Potter,” he shook his head, “eat, it’ll help before Pomfrey checks on you.”

“She doesn’t need-”

“Yes, she bloody well does-”

_“Yo… ho ho… ho.”_

Holly took the chocolate and sank her teeth into it, shockingly she instantly felt better, and quickly she began to wolf the candy down while Hermione explained why the chocolate worked against dementors and what a dementor actually was. She also added in explaining that the chocolate had come from the random appearance of their new defense professor, a man named Lupin. The man had apparently sent the dementor away with a powerful light spell before he’d taken one look at the group of them, then had left. And he hadn’t returned.

While Holly was listening, her concern wasn’t actually on the professor that would no doubt try to kill her that yer. But instead, on her soulmate’s tone and the rasp as he sang the same line again and again. She couldn’t remember what happened before she passed out, but Holly had a feeling she might have sung to him. Which meant he very well might think something awful had happened to her, which it had.

“Yohohoho.” She sang with a cracking voice causing Hermione to give her an uncertain look.

“Holly?”

Holly waved her off and rubbed her eyes, “he’s singing in my head, has been since I woke up. Just letting him know I’m fine.” He probably had been since she’d passed out, which meant he’d been singing for hours without her responding. Holly felt guilt rush up even as the compartment fell silent as the group took in her words.

“You… are a moron, he would have no idea anything is wrong,” Greengrass stated before singing something quickly under her breath that none of them missed.

Zabini smirked and sang louder, uncaring if the Gryffindor’s heard him, “If you’re not the one~.”

“Then why does my soul feel glad, today~” Pansy finished scowling over the fact that she wanted to do the exact same as Holly. As she did, Ron shot her a look, his brows punching together but kept his own mouth shut just as Hermione did.

In another world, Shanks pressed his hands to his eyes as he sat in complete darkness on the beach and rubbed at the tear tracks that had long since dried.

“Thank Poseidon.” Shanks rasped, his throat burned as he finally allowed it to rest, and suddenly he understood the day he’d found that homeless man. That man who’d knelt in the middle of the street, mouth moving, but absolutely no sound coming out. As he choked and bled, but he didn’t stop. Shanks had been too young to understand that the man’s soulmate had died and that all the man could do was sing on alone after that. And Shanks prayed the gods would not be so cruel as to do that to him or to the people he loved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Currently, I'm fighting with Spooky Scary Skeleton who refuses to work for me, so instead, I decided to update Send Me A Song, which is cooperating quite nicely! Odd, because it was the exact opposite last month. Regardless SMAS has ended up waaaay longer than intended. The original intent was to do the first two chapters, then time skip a ton. Instead, you guys are getting oh... at least three chapters for year three. Oops? Hope you enjoy? (oh boy, this fic is gonna get longgggg)
> 
> Also, if anyone is reading SSS, then feel free to shoot me some prompts. Maybe they spark something. >.>


	6. Galway Girl

Ron was staring at it, he had been since the moment he noticed it and he really couldn’t look away.

“You can see it right, Holly?” 

Holly glanced up splitting her attention away from Padfoot. Her poor dog had been deeply affected by the creature she’d come to learn was called a dementor. A being of darkness that guarded Azkaban, a beast that could suck away your very soul, one that drained away happiness just by proximity. It was a being from nightmares to any that possessed a soulmate, and she couldn’t fathom why they would be guarding the magical prison. Holly had learned quickly that dementors, after a certain amount of time, could steal your soulmates voice, snatching away the sound. Hearing that, well, Holly didn’t blame Sirius Black for escaping. Magical prison was indeed ‘inhumane,’ as Hermione said. 

The dementors attack had nearly ripped her soul away, and she was still feeling dangerously faint after what happened. It was hard to describe, Holly felt weak, but not physically so. She was emotionally drained, and there was an aching pain in her chest where her heart was, that wasn’t going away. To get over it, Holly focused on her savior of a pet who seemed more affected than even she was. Padfoot had all but spent the rest of the ride to Hogwarts in her lap. While in the carriages, he’d climbed onto the chair to cuddle her and couldn’t be budged. 

Turning away from Padfoot’s furred head, Holly glanced up. She noted the skeletal horses dragging the carriage to the school and nodded. “Since last year… why?”

“Wait, what horses?” Hermione looked up from her book toward the front but seemed to see nothing. Holly frowned, and Ron made a face. Both of them gestured to the creatures, but Hermione continued not to perceive it. 

“Those ones.” Ron pointed, “but they definitely weren’t there last year, I think I’d remember that.” 

“They were,” Holly insisted, “they’re quite friendly though, I’ve seen them in the forest occasionally flying over the trees.” 

“There are no horses!” 

The carriage slid to a stop, and they all clambered out. To prove a point, Holly marched to the nearest horse and planted her hand on its side, showing Hermione that there was something solid there. “See, right here.” 

“Holly, you’re touching nothing!” 

“She is! There’s a horse!” 

“It’s a thestral actually Ronnikins.” Announced George who had been waiting for them at the school entrance. He and Fred had both heard of Holly’s close call from a laughing Ravenclaw. The girl claimed she’d passed out and nearly lost her soul; though no one around the girl had found it funny. The twins had been worrying terribly until she arrived looking pale, but alive. George walked past the thestral, which he was now capable of seeing and hugged Holly around the middle. “Alright, Hols?” 

Holly pressed her face into George’s shoulder feeling far better about hugs than the start of the summer and mumbled. “I’m okay, Padfoot protected me.” Holly was getting terrible used to affection with certain people due to staying with the Weasley’s; they were touchy, and Holly found she actually enjoyed the contact.

George gave her a goofy grin and patted the dog over the head proudly: “I owe you a bone. Good boy.” He released Holly as Fred came in for his own hug, not noticing that Padfoot didn’t react at all to the praise, the dog only stared blankly on. Fred took his hug as George embraced Ron, and they pulled back to get away from the incoming carriages. 

“So, what’s a thestral?” Ron asked once they were up the stairs a bit. 

“A magical creature, you’ll learn about them in Care of Magical Creatures and Defense this year,” Fred explained well aware that Ron and Hermione had taken Care. “They are meat-eating, friendly skeletal horses that can only be seen by those that have seen death.” He didn’t need to explain why he, George, Ginny, and Ron could now see them after the summer they’d had. Though he was curious as to why Holly had been able to see them a year before. 

Thankfully someone in their group had no filter: “So how can you see them, Holly?” Hermione asked, chasing her curiosity.

“Oh… I suppose it’s because I saw Quirrel die.” 

“It could also be because of her soulmate,” George added, trying to pull the event from her head. None of her new older brothers had been happy to hear about Quirrel or the basilisk. “Some legends say that you can see a thestral when you lose your innocence. And since you and your soulmate are connected, many theorize only one half needs to have seen death for both to see a thestral. But they haven’t been able to prove it.”

Ron sped up his pace a bit as the scent of cooking food hit them, his appetite was back and in full force. “I doubt that’s the case for Holly, her life is abnormal with its danger. Her soulmate is probably living a normal life.” 

Holly shrugged. Either way, she could adjust, and she could ask soon! She had a translation to his song now, and with Hermione’s help, they’d quickly learn his odd language. On top of that, her new classes would only help her reach him. Hopefully, she’d learn more about him soon with the communication opening up. She did also hope Ron was right, her life was dangerous, and she hoped her soulmate didn’t have to deal with the same chaos that she did. 

“Potter. Granger.” The girls both turned spotting McGonagall, who was standing by the stairs. Her eyes roamed them, focusing on Holly specifically before stating: “join me in my office.” Holly and Hermione exchanged a confused look but obliged, they bid a temporary goodbye to the Weasley’s before the voices of the students started to fade. Following into the quieter hallways soon all they could hear was Padfoot’s nails clicked on the stones of the school as McGonagall led them to her office.

“Miss Granger, please see me inside. Miss Potter, remain here a moment.” 

“Yes, Professor.” The girls answered, and Holly quickly claimed a seat, only to notice she wasn’t alone in the room even as Hermione and their Professor left. The new Professor, the one who gave them chocolate, was inside the room with her. Personally, considering the previous two defense professors had nearly killed her, Holly was wary of being alone with the man. Nervously Holly leaned away from him as she put her guard up. Automatically Padfoot leaned back, he settled his head in her lap and eyed the new guy.

Nearby a clock ticked. The man didn’t say a thing as he stared at Holly and Padfoot, in return she stared right on back, daring him to act. In her robes Holly firmed up her grip on her wand waiting for it.

“He’s beautiful.” The man suddenly commented, “where did you get him?” 

“Err…” Holly flexed her hands on her wand as Padfoot huffed a noise: “he… I mean I found him in a bramble field behind the Burrow… err, that’s my friend’s house.”

“I see.” He pushed from the wall and circled the room before hopping onto the desk, McGonagall’s specifically, which made her slightly scandalized. “When did this happen?” 

“This… summer…” 

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes, Holly knew exactly what a smile not reaching the eyes looked like, and his was a textbook perfect example. She tensed slightly, defensively, even as she prepared to shield at a moments notice and never allow herself to be alone with this man if she could help it. She was not getting caught in another deadly situation with a defense professor thank you very much. “And, may I ask, what’s his name?” his eyes flashed almost golden? Why had they done that? Was she seeing things?

“Padfoot…” he flinched, his entire body jerking violently as Padfoot growled in the back of his throat. “my bro- George and Fred insisted on the name.”

“I see.” His expression looked like he was about to throw up like he was going to be physically sick, and it only grew worse as he asked his last question: “and… he’s been with this entire time? How has that been? Is he a good… dog?” The dog came out after a brief hesitation like he’d wanted to say something else. Holly uncomfortable almost wished McGonagall would hurry up, she wanted to go anywhere but there. 

“Yes sir, he’s a good dog…” hurry up, Hermione, hurry up!

The door opened, and Holly nearly threw herself from her chair as Hermione told Holly to head in to speak to their Professor for her turn. Only for the guy to ask one final question. “Miss Potter.”

“Yes.” She forced turning his way.

“This may sound odd, but… have you ever seen a rat, brown in color with… a missing toe??” 

Pettigrew, it had to be, but- how did he… what did he know?

“I… err…” she glanced at Hermione for help, but her friend also appeared stumped by the sudden question, so Holly was forced to blurt out: “one Uhm… my friend Ron, he owned one like that but it… well Padfoot killed it this summer. Which was for the best… err… it… bit Ginny, yup, his sister, it bit her so… good riddance.”

“It was a nasty bite too! Got infected!” Hermione rushed to add detail, “and they gave him a rat funeral.” 

“A rat funeral, very upsetting.”

“But a beautiful service.” Merlin above, they sounded like Fred and George. 

“Miss Potter.” Holly swung toward McGonagall, who smiled kindly and handed her a paper, “your time-table. With that you may accompany Miss Granger to the Great-Hall, the matter was solved, you can be on your way.” 

“Oh.” She accepted the parchment, “thank you Professor… I’ll do that.” 

She retreated toward Hermione, only giving her time-table a brief glance, she had Runes and Arthimacy as Holly had asked, so she was content. Holly had chosen both after Molly helped her research the requirements for her chosen career as an unspeakable. The only occupation that had access to the portal or anything like it. It was the career she was gunning for with her whole being. “We’ll be on our way then.” The girls retreated, Padfoot on her heels. All three of them casting a look behind them as the new Professor entered McGonagall’s office with the door clicking shut behind him. 

“So, what was that about?” Hermione instantly asked, “she was stalling with me, I think she wanted Professor Lupin to speak to you?” 

“He was oddly suspicious about Padfoot, and he knew about Scabbers… do you think?” 

“Maybe he knows that Scabbers wasn’t what he seems?” Hermione frowned as they rushed on, “it’s possible, and if he did know, then maybe he knows the truth about that night. About Sirius Black?” Padfoot tripped slightly but they paid him no mind. “Perhaps George is right; maybe he is innocent.” 

“If he is then this is a giant cover-up,” Holly mused, “it wouldn’t surprise me considering my life… but why would that happen?”

“My first instinct says it’s about you. Perhaps… no, that’s mad.”

“What? Tell me.”

Hermione made a face and stopped in the empty hall. Wringing her hands slightly, she admitted: “Maybe it was to keep you with the Dursley’s, Dumbledore kept insisting there was a blood protection… and if Black was your god-father; well wouldn’t it make sense that if he were innocent, that he’d adopt you? And if he did, you wouldn’t have that blood protection from your aunt.” 

Padfoot suddenly started to loudly growl, hair all over his body standing on end. Absently Holly hummed a soothing noise to calm him but kept most of her focus on Hermione while she thought on that. “If that’s true… then…” her mouth felt dry, “I mentioned it to him… that they hated me…” she hadn’t used the word before ‘abuse,’ and still couldn’t, but surely she had made it clear to the headmaster? “what they did. I told Dumbledore, but he said I couldn’t stay at the school… that I needed that protection, I thought… well, it made sense; no one else would take me, right?” Except that wasn’t true, the Weasley’s had done so much to keep her safe. They’d taken her even with the increase in cost and danger she posed to their family. Still, she wanted to give the headmaster the benefit of the doubt, maybe she hadn’t been clear. “We’re just jumping to conclusions right now, the headmaster wouldn’t do that.”

Hermione didn’t look convinced: “that was my first thought too, but… I can’t give you a reason to say why he wouldn’t or would. We don’t know him, no one does. So… it’s just something to keep in mind. Sirius Black might not even be innocent.” Still, Hermione wasn’t going to forget it. She didn’t know the magical legal system yet, but if Dumbledore was supreme Mugwump… shouldn’t he be ultimately in charge of those trials? Or was that someone else? She’d need to look it up. 

Nodding along Holly added: “We’ll have to keep an eye on the new professor too, he’s suspicious.”

“Not to mention the last two tried to kill you.” Padfoot tripped again and Holly gave him a pitying look. Her mad dog still wasn’t healthy, and the dementor attack had not helped. She’d probably have to carry him up the stairs at one point at this rate, thank Merlin for feather-light charms. 

“Exactly.”

Holly shook her head slightly as they entered the Great Hall together. Ron was sitting beside his sister, he caught their eye when they appeared and waved them over to the empty seats he’d saved. Padfoot slid under the table once they were seated as the general populace of Hogwarts made themselves comfortable. Ron, the moment they were down, started to ask the questions they knew would come out. 

“What happened?” 

“McGonegall wanted to tell me about my classes, and the new guy has an unhealthy obsession with my dog, might know something about the rat… also, Dumbledore might be evil.” Holly deadpanned as Padfoot gave a canine bark that she would swear was laughter. Ginny, at the same time, burst out laughing choking out an ‘only you,’ while Ron’s mouth dropped open.

“You were there for barely ten minutes! How did that happen?” 

“We’ll talk about it out of public company.” Hermione interrupted.

Agreeing to do so, Holly fished out her journal from her inner pockets. They had perhaps ten minutes yet until the sorting began, and at least thirty before they started to eat. Ron was already complaining about the food, so Holly found a way to distract herself. From her hunger and the adventure already beginning on the first bloody day of school, and from the lingering touch of the dementor’s hands on her soul. Feet kicking idly Holly looked over the work she and Hermione had already started on her soulmates language and immersed herself in it.

“Gather up all the crew…” 

 

* * *

  
“This homework is insane, these runes aren’t different ‘mione!”

Sirius watched Holly’s head crash to her desk and snickered. His pup had taken a problematic pair of classes for her dream job as an unspeakable. Personally, he had taken Divination and Care to spite his mother, who’d wanted him to take the same classes Holly had voluntarily taken on. Lily, however, had done the same courses as Holly did now, and James had followed with runes to ‘stalk’ Lily, with care as his second. Unfortunately for Holly, Sirius wouldn’t be able to help her with either class, even if he decided to reveal himself. 

Truthfully, Sirius could do so at any point. His mind was growing clearer each day away from Azkaban, and he knew she, her friends, and the Weasley twin suspected he was innocent yet, he couldn’t do it. Every time he went to, every time he decided she had to know, he chickened out. 

Holly loved her dog Padfoot, she allowed him close and told him things that she often kept to herself. But how would she react to the man Padfoot really was? The man whose mistakes orphaned her and left her with Muggles that physically and emotionally abused her for years. That was his fault, everything she’d suffered had been a result of his actions. Because he’d convinced James and Lily to go with Peter, because he’d gone after him when they died and gotten himself arrested, because he hadn’t escaped earlier. It was all him, every horror story she finally allowed to lips from her lips in the dark. 

She’d hate him, and he couldn’t handle it. 

At least as a dog, he could stay at her side; as a dog, he could watch over her and protect her from threat. In his furred form, he wouldn’t bring the public eye down on her and the Weasley’s who’d taken her in. Oh, he was sane enough to realize his name would never be cleared, and therefore he’d never be allowed to adopt her; and in the worst case… she’d be returned to those people, and he’d be kissed. 

So a dog he remained.

Though, that did not stop him from being him. He might have more of a canine brain now, a side effect of spending too much time in his animegus form coupled with his decade in Azkaban. However, he was still Padfoot of the Marauders.

Stretching out his body, he flicked his tail against Holly’s leg, causing her to glance his way. With her watching, he snuck off, ensuring she knew he was doing to prevent her from panicking. She had the first time he’d done it, though he suspected that was because of the dementors surrounding the school, which was steadily affecting everyone in the school. Even from a distance, the creatures were draining at the students, young and emotional as they were. The hormones hanging around, the growth they all had to do, the feelings and open connections to soulmates would all draw a dementor, and anyone under age would be particularly suitable to the darkness of the creature. Honestly, Lily had hated the very idea of them even being at the prison, most people did hate it. But to have around children? Sirius had no idea why people weren’t rioting in the streets about it. 

Regardless, with Holly aware of where he went, Sirius headed out of the common room and down the halls on a familiar path. 

No longer did he walk under a cloak too small to hide his feet. James’ shoulder wasn’t bumping his side as Remus desperately tried to keep him quiet. There was no howling at the moon as he playing danced around four hooves. No James mooning at and serenading Lily Evans, who was well aware of who James was but who kept demanding he mature if he ever wanted to be with her. 

_“You sound like a drowned turkey Potter, maybe you should take lessons.”_ Lily stood in the hallway in his memories, hands on her hips with Snivellus a step behind her. His shoulders were up and defensive now that she was close. Not so innocent a few minutes previously, when he’d been attempting to hex Sirius from behind. 

_“Lovely Lily!”_ James perked up, his eyes turning into hearts as he swooned before her. His soulmate, Lily Evans, Merlin James was obsessed and always had been. Sirius had been treated to James’ poetry about the girl in his head from the first moment they met, and it only got worse when he realized Lily was that girl. A pity Lily found him wanting. Then again, James did seem to love the challenge. _“I wrote you a new song, would you like to hear it?”_ He didn’t wait for an answer as Remus loudly groaned, Snivellus cringed, and Lily… blushed? Well well wasn’t that interesting. 

_“Don’t you dare!”_ Lily snapped, _“my ears haven’t recovered from the last one-”_

And James refused to listen, convinced he’d win her over through song.

_“ **My** yy **Y** yy gi **ft** i **s** my so **N** g-”_

Sirius wrenched his gaze away from the shades in the hallway and forced himself onward. He had a mission to complete and revenge to dish out on the bat that was Holly’s potions professor. Snivellus was going to pay for insulting his pup. Pay in pink.

Upstairs, Holly tossed her homework done with a huff. It wasn’t due yet. Still, with a combination of Hermione’s insistence and her own desire to reach that distant reality where her soulmate resided, she was taking the courses quite seriously. She just hadn’t expected it to be so much. Runes ironically she breezed through, something about the patterns and symbols just clicked in her head in a way only defense spells had. But arithmancy… numbers was not her thing, and learning anything about it was like a challenge. Honestly, she wished she had a damned calculator, what she wouldn’t give for the Muggle invention. 

“I need a break, my brain needs a break; otherwise I’m going to snap,” Holly said. She’d just finish the rest later. Idly she glanced at Hermione who’s hair was bushier than usual. It was only a few weeks into term, and her friend was already looking like it was exam season. Full bags under her eyes and everything. “And so do you.” She decided. Standing, she stretched out her spine and rolled her shoulders, but Hermione didn’t so much as glance up from her Divination work. 

That in itself was beyond suspicious. Runes and Divination were at the exact same time. Yet, Ron had told Holly that Hermione had most definitely been in his class at the same time that Holly had been in Runes with Hermione. “’ Mione.” She nudged, reaching to poke Hermione in the side, the girl didn’t even twitch.

“Soon, I’ll meet you there.” 

Holly pressed her lips together: “I didn’t tell you what we were going to do.” 

“Singing probably, like I said, I’ll meet you there.” 

Well, alright, that was just a decent enough guess. Holly did tend to work nonstop on her singing and translating her soulmates language from the multitude of songs her soulmate was offering her. He was steadily rehashing every song he’d ever sung to her one at a time in English. Each one helped Holly get a reverse grasp on speaking his language but it was a slow progress for both of them. “Alright, just don’t take too long.” 

Hermione didn’t even acknowledge that as Holly slipped out of the room, heading randomly toward the Great Hall. She was on the hunt for Ron. He’d left far earlier in the afternoon after getting tired of his homework. It was another warning sign on Hermione’s part because their homework crazed friend didn’t comment at all on the abandoning of his work. Leaving, while exchanging a look with Holly Ron, had told her he was going to see about some quidditch with Ginny practice. He was secretly hoping he’d make it on the reserve team for Gryffindor. If Holly wasn’t so determined to become an Unspeakable, she very well might have joined him, that and she did, in fact, find Runes highly engaging. Complicated, yes, but enjoyable? Definitely. 

In the end, it was not Ron she found first, but the twins. Standing in the hallway near one of the multiple empty classrooms, the twins had their heads together over some large parchment. Likely some plot in the making. Feeling a touch mischievous Holly started to creep forward to surprise them, but it was the twins that shocked her. Abruptly, just before she cried out their names to startle her, they spun grinning and loudly cried her name.

 “Holly!” She jumped slightly, feeling her heart skip a beat, then she blushed in frustration. So much for that.

She could see the forked tails waggling behind the twins as they surrounded her, they knew very well what she had been trying, and they were proud. Holly was their newest sister, but she hadn’t experienced a life of brotherly teasing yet. Their little Holly was just getting her feet under her, realizing she could try to scare them, tease them, and get mad without ruining their relationship. The more relaxed she got, the better, in their opinion. 

“Little sister of ours.” 

“How are you this fine evening?” 

She glanced between them, pretending she hadn’t seen them swiftly hide something behind Fred’s back. “Hi, guys.” The parchment was replaced behind their backs by something new, and she arched a brow, wondering what they needed a decoy to hide. What was that first parchment? 

“What are you working on?” She hinted at the original parchment, which they said nothing about. Honestly, they acted as if she was blind. She was a seeker for a damned good reason, and with her new glasses, a proper prescription this time, she could see even better than she used to. 

“Ah!” Fred swayed to the side, revealing the replacement. “Curious are we little sister, well come take a look!” he beckoned her forward and brandished a hand down at some sort of potion recipe. Holly furrowed her brows at it and took a wild guess. 

“For your shop?” 

“Got it in one!” George clapped on her the shoulder showering her with casual affection. “This one will turn your skin, and just about everything else it touches a lovely shade of fuchsia.” Idly he wiggled his fingers at her revealing the tips of his nails had been slightly tinted. It was another sign that this was George as she’d correctly known, George had a better hand with potions so he’d be the one experimenting. Fred, on the other hand, was better with Runes, which was why she went to him more often than not for help with her homework. Fred or Bill, that was, who she was relaxing around finally. 

“Is it permanent?” she asked as they sheepishly ducked their heads.

“For the moment, yes… we’re working on that though.” 

Holly snorted, pulling away from George’s grip: “I love pink as much as the next girl, but not permanently, you keep that away from me.”

“Why, sister mine? Don’t you want my love?” George made a grab for her as she squealed, ducking under his grip she was caught by Fred from behind. He held her up like a sacrificial pig as George wiggled his fingers toward her threateningly. He was, in fact, going to make full contact, which may or may not turn her pink when a boom sounded off in the distance. All three stopped and exchanged a look, but no follow up came. 

“Did we forget a prank?” Fred asked George, who shook his head in a negative.

“Sounds like the dungeons.” Holly wiggled free of the twins, “probably a potions accident.” Thank Merlin she’d already done her potions for the week, Snape would be off to a terrible mood thanks to that. Though, thinking of lessons: “Hey, do you guys know of a way someone can be in two places at once… magically?” 

“Poly-juice?” George offered, touching his fingers to her arm just to prove he could, and didn’t leave pink behind. The solution was long dry, so he wouldn’t spread the coloring. 

“Time-travel?” Fred rolled up their recipe and tucked it away.

“Wait… you can time-travel?!”

“Alas! Our poor muggle-raised sister! So naive.” Fred dropped a hand to her head, “let me educate you-”

“WEASLEY!” 

All three of them flinched as a bright pink form appeared down the hall. They stared in abject horror as Snape, hook nose and cloak, billowed toward them, leaving behind glowing fuchsia footprints. He was covered in color, from head to toe, he was pink. 

“Uh oh.” 

“Did do you do that?” George asked, hurriedly hiding his hands.

“No.” Fred sounded a touch high-pitched torn between hilarity and realization that they were pretty much fucked. Even as he acknowledged this, he shoved something at Holly, parchment, and Holly smuggled it into her robes. Then she made a tactical retreat choosing not to be anywhere near there when Snape laid into the twins. 

Though, she was confused as to why Fred had given her the recipe, and a large piece of blank parchment. 

 

* * *

 

The universe decided to reward him for pranking the beast of the dungeons. Sirius was alone in the dorms for a well-earned dog nap; he had to catch up after all the wandering and pranking he’d set up during the night. He’d woken long enough to note Holly dropping her outer robes before rushing off again when Ron called up. An hour later, Sirius was still alone but awake. So he’d stretched out deciding to take a temporary break from his canine form to snatch some of Fay Dunbar’s Muggle books. The girl had a thing for Muggle fiction and had dozens of the books on her shelf when he got the chance he read some of them, and he had to know who the culprit was. 

When he got up, Sirius accidentally knocked Holly’s robes to the floor and picked them up, tossing them back to the bed. When the parchment fell out. There it was, that eerily familiar work they’d spent months upon months working on. The one that had Sirius trapped for an entire afternoon as James attempted to guess passwords after he’d fallen into a wall into a new area. Their map, the map holding his, James, Remus, and Peter’s magic. 

Holly had their map.

His eyes flew wide in horror as he snatched it off the floor. Holly could not have this. One look at the map and she’d know who her dog really was- oh Merlin, she’d freak. Frantic Sirius twisted on the spot before making a quick plan. He didn’t have the time to change the runes, so his name would remain Padfoot and not Sirius on the map, but nor could he find it in himself to destroy the map either. Therefore, he had to trick her. One more sin to add to his tally.

He stole some parchment, stashed the real map, transformed… and sank his teeth in.

Hours later, Holly sheepishly looked at the floor as she approached Fred and George with guilt dancing across her being.

“Holly, dear sister.” Fred turned toward her suspicions up, he knew that pose… the pose of guilt, but why was she in it? “do you have our parchment?”

“Your recipe?” she nodded, yes that she had, but… Holly set her bag on the ground in front of her, “I have it, but Uhm…” she blushed nervously as she handed the recipe to George, who was closer, “the other one, the blank one? Padfoot sort of... might have… eaten it.” 

“HE WHAT!?” they screamed in horror.

“Sorry! I’m so sorry! I’ll replace it?”

“It’s gone- the map! Our beloved map!” they flailed on the ground dramatically to her guilt moaning about a map and terrible bad dogs. Holly could only apologize again and again, unaware that the actual parchment had been hidden away in her suitcase, and a decoy had replaced it. Unaware that one pleased as punch dog was going to use that particular parchment to the best of his abilities in the coming future. And that one specific canine was desperately grateful that the Weasley twins hadn’t taken a closer look at a particular dog on the map.

“Not our mapppppp.” 

“Noooooo!” 

“Sorry!”

 

* * *

 

The ‘noble’ art of Divination was a giant waste of time. Honestly! She had gotten more out of Muggle Studies, and she was a Muggleborn! 

Hermione should have known this class would be a mess when she’d smelled the Sherry on her professor’s robes on day one. Not to mention, Sybill Trelawney seemed to enjoy targeting poor Neville with death predictions that were turning the boy into a nervous wreck due. Truthfully that might have something to do with the predictions and his unfortunately close proximity with Padfoot, who’d not so much as growled in Neville’s direction. The harmlessness of Holly’s dog didn’t matter to Neville or the purebloods because they had become convinced Padfoot was a Grim. Defending her friend and her pet to the best of her abilities, Hermione had pointed out on every occasion that Padfoot was not a Grim, he was at best a wolf-dog mixed with Labrador. But no! The pure-bloods refused to believe Muggles had dog breeds that weren’t the one-tailed crup or a grim. And as a result, Neville and just about every other pure-blood that came across Padfoot was convinced they were going to die. 

She digressed; Hermione was no quitter, and she was determined to learn Divination. She was keeping up with all her other classes, from Care with Ron, to Runes and Arthimacy with Holly. Hermione was on top of her homework. Sure, she didn’t socialize anymore. And technically Hermione hadn’t helped Holly at all with her translations, and she felt guilty about that… but she was functional. She could handle it, Hermione was sure she could… at least, until that particular lesson. 

Sitting opposite Ron, Hermione stared into the crystal ball before her and tried not to give their professor an utterly incredulous expression. “I beg your pardon?” and failed.

“Hermione it’s fine!” Ron took the class because it was easy, he could admit that. He knew Hermione and Holly were both going for Runes and Arthimacy, but the idea of the classes and the workload had made him pale. Ron knew Holly picked based on her desire to become an Unspeakable to find that otherworld portal, and Hermione was Hermione. And as much as Ron loved the girls, he was not following them into that chaos. So he’d gone with Care and Divination, and oddly, he was excelling, even if Trelawney was a touch batty. Not to mention, he was often distracted like Parkinson, who sat directly behind him.

Ron secretly hated that he noticed the day Parkinson’s partner Greengrass dropped Divination - and wasn’t he just a little smug that Hermione outlasted the Slytherin. And when Parkinson was placed in a trio with Bulstrode and her Ravenclaw partner. None of the girls truly got alone, and since Ron sat in front of him, he knew very well that they didn’t. It was hard to miss the whispered sniping between them. Ron was also secretly grateful that Holly hadn’t taken Divination because she, unlike Hermione, would definitely notice his building obsession with the Slytherin girl. Of which he was entirely in denial about. 

“No.” Hermione snarled stomping to her feet as silence fell around them. Everyone in the class was staring now if they hadn’t before. Though Ron did think Trelawney was a touch harsh with her predictive nonsense, he refused to put any stock into the woman’s words anymore. Not after living with a Grim since the summer. Hermione though, she took it a bit more seriously. “How dare you! You’re a teacher, you- you drunken bat!” 

Their professor huffed the picture of an adult unimpressed with Hermione’s ‘childish’ tantrum. Hermione was right though, the woman had pushed it too far, she just refused to accept it or apologize. 

“Sit down, child.” 

Oh no. 

“Child!” Hermione puffed up like an offended cat, like her angry cat. Crookshanks did the same thing anytime Snape, Dumbledore, or Lupin wandered near him. “You just- do- I-” Hermione was beyond furious, beyond words even, and Ron sank into his chair. All this because Trelawney had looked into his crystal ball and decided he was going to die in an admittedly gruesome fashion. Apparently, he was doomed to bleed out while defending his soulmate as rescue came too late. Then again, she’d said the same about Neville two months before that, so Ron didn’t take it too seriously. 

“-lacking the third eye-”

The crystal ball on the table was thrown off of it, and half the class jumped when it shattered. At that, Ron arched a brow, it had to be a fake then. Authentic crystal balls, ones that had been adequately enchanted, didn’t break. One more reason not to think much about their professor's words, at least in his opinion. 

Hermione stomped out, screaming that she quit and leaving him without a partner, at least for a few minutes. 

“Miss Parkinson, as I had predicted. We would find you a partner in no time.”

_Oh no._

“No.” Parkinson gasped out loud. 

“You will be partnering with Mister Weasley, move quickly as I collect a new crystal ball for your table.”

Why? Just… _why._

 

* * *

 

It was time. 

Holly rubbed her fingers together as Hedwig gave her a comforting hoot, which served to boost her confidence. 

They’d finally reach April; it had taken her that long to prepare herself for this event. She was going to sing in her soulmates language, a song she chose explicitly for this event. After all the songs he’d sang to her, one every month or so that she memorized and sang right on back to him. Holly was ready to return the favor. 

All in all, it had been a relatively uneventful year. Yes, Dementors were surrounding the school, but it had been a relatively peaceful year. Lupin had tried to kill her - yet - and seemed entirely focused on Padfoot for some insane reason. For a more mad one, Holly would swear Padfoot was messing with the man. Other than that, there seemed to be a series of pranks plaguing the school and specifically Professor Lupin and Snape that the twins pleaded innocence on. 

The Christmas holidays had been spent in the castle for once, instead of the burrow. Holly suspected was purely because of the eyes on her over Sirius Black, instead of the desires of Molly and Arthur to spend the holidays with Charlie, whom she still hadn’t met. None of the Weasley’s were going to admit it, so she wasn’t bringing it up either. Holly had gotten them all gifts, including Charlie, and had received in return. The only odd thing about the day had been the book on runes from an unknown source. One which was highly advanced and beyond rare that had Hermione drooling over and Ron putting up half-hearted warnings about Sirius Black that neither girl had listened too.

Other than that, the trio agreed it was, in fact, a bit too peaceful considering an alleged mass murder had escaped prisoner. With his escape, there had been mention of his name plaguing the papers for weeks. But since then, there was nothing. No sightings, no word, no hint, no sign at all. Sirius Black seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth. It was to the point that most of the student body was convinced he either drowned in the ocean escaping Azkaban or had run off to another country. Ironically this had Malfoy and his father demanding the dementors be removed from the school with Dumbledore. 

Holly was hoping it would happen. 

“Okay, I’m ready… or as ready as I’ll ever be. 'Sate… Watashi-'” she stumbled and pushed on. She was singing this song, she was.

A world way, Shanks paused before leaving his room and felt his lips curl upward. His heart swelled in joy, and he dipped his head to bask in it. Months he’d been singing to her about the pirate life, about the ocean and freedom, scurvy dogs and venturing out into the open seas as he painstakingly translated song after song. One word and song at a time, she corrected his accent, teaching the actual sound of each one of her words. Truthfully he liked to say if he ever met her, he’d be fluent in the odd language of her island. Still, he wondered if she’d ever return the favor, and now she had.

_“Well, I took a stroll down the old long walk.”_

Now he knew why she sounded so amused when she corrected his accent, he’s was a disaster even he could make sense of what she was trying to say. Idly he corrected her, changing the sounds to what they’d be. When she corrected, he could see the blush in her tone and gave a fond grin.

_“And I ask you, mate, what’s a lass to do? ‘Cause her hair was black, and her eyes were green.”_

Shanks strode toward the kitchens when he paused. Suddenly she cut off the song and started to sing that line a second time with clear intent in her voice, and it clicked. 'Her hair was black, and her eyes were green.'

_Oh._

She was describing herself through the song! She had black hair and green eyes. 

After the third repetition of the line, she continued while Shanks attempted to remember the word for the color of his own eyes. Then when she reached the chorus again, he chimed in startling a few members of the crew as he passed them. None of them were used to speaking another language entirely, so far as they traveled the world, they’d never encountered an island that did that. 

“And I ask you mate, what’s fella to do? ‘Cause his hair was red, and his eyes were gray.” 

_“I took her hand, and I gave her a twirl. And I lost my heart to a Galway girl.”_ He truly had lost his heart to her, to his dark-haired green-eyed beauty. The laugh and joy that lingered in her voice, the stuttering nervousness that used to plague her voice. The softly whispered songs in the dark, the focus in which she tried to sing in a language she had no idea how to navigate just to return the favor to him. 

The gods matched him to her, and he was a romantic at heart. He knew she was his, they’d match each other perfectly. Compliment each other and urge each other on, soulmates. The woman he’d show the world too, the one who’d enjoy every minute of it with him. Gods, he couldn’t wait to meet her. To have her in his arms and know precisely how it felt to do so. 

“See I’ve traveled around, been all over the world!” he sang loudly, picking up the lyrics relatively quickly, “but I ‘aint seen nothing like a Galway girl.” 

They’d finally done it, they could both communicate and translate their own songs. Soon Shanks could plague her with endless songs about pirates, the ocean and sing the island songs to tell her exactly where he was. Then she could return with her own island song and he’d finally be able to find her through it. They were on their way!

Holly left the Owlery with a bounce in her steps. Padfoot wasn’t long in finding her, and she beamed at him once he did. 

“My soulmate has red hair and gray eyes.” She announced without preamble, “and one day I’m going to find him and travel the world like a pirate.” A brand new world, a world where pirates were common and magic plentiful. A world beyond that impossible portal where a completely different language was spoken and countless sights could be seen. “I’ll see the ocean and new lands… I’ll be free.”

Free of the Dursley’s and Voldemort, free of the eyes on her back and the title attached to her every step. Of course she’d miss her new adoptable family but no one said the portal was one way. Maybe she could figure out how to go back and forth so she could visit and naturally introduce her soulmate to the Weasley’s and Hermione. “It’ll be perfect, Padfoot… just… perfect.” 

An perhaps, in an ideal world, it might have very well worked out. 

“HOLLY!” 

Ron rushed up to her side, looking somewhat red as he gasped: “Have you seen Hermione? She stormed out of Divination, and no one’s seen her since.”

“Brilliant, she’s been complaining the entire time-”

“Not Brilliant!” Ron snapped, “she’s run off, Patil are going on and on about Trelawney’s correct predictions. Neville’s losing his mind again convinced I’m going to die, and I’m stuck with Parkinson as a partner because Greengrass ditched the class months ago. I’m stuck with a Slytherin Hols!”

Holly shrugged: “At least it’s a decent Slytherin, they did help on the train. Maybe she isn’t so bad.”

Ron made a disgruntled sound: “That’s not the point- just- help me find her!” 

“Lead the way.”

 

* * *

 

Slytherin’s were one of two things, and one of those was not Pureblood, even if she was. To get into the house, you have to be Ambitious or clever but not necessarily both. Crabbe and Goyle were ambitious but moronic, so they were Slytherin. Daphne was clever with intensely focused ambitious. Blaise was a clever man-whore. Millicent was ambitious and intelligent but a half-blood - proving her earlier point. Pansy, Pansy was ambitious, and in some regards, she was also clever. 

Pansy was bright when it came to appearances; she knew how to act ditsy, so people overlooked her. She knew how to bat her eyelids to get attention. Knew when to blend in and when to stand out. Pansy was also clever when it came to connections, she knew relationships. She knew exactly who to befriend to benefit the most. And admittedly, her school-work suffered because she didn’t put in the proper effort, Pansy knew she’d survive regardless. 

That was if she didn’t get distracted.

Her mother had taught her from a young age about soulmates with a chip on her shoulder. Her mother had not married her soulmate, but she had found the man in the middle of a war. A muggle Pansy’s mother had whispered to her in the dark. Hair like the sun, a smile that made the darkness parts of her light up, eyes as blue as sapphires. He’d been beautiful, kind, a wonderful soul, and entirely without magic. 

_“Oh, Pansy… he sang like the angels.”_

But at the time, her mother had been engaged, promised to Pansy’s father to continue their blood-line. To create one more pure-blooded child. At the time, her father had already been a death eater - oh yes, she knew what he was Pansy couldn’t deny that. And the war had been in full swing.

Pansy hadn’t needed more information than that to realize how the story ended. A dead muggle with blonde hair drenched in blood, a victorious father who won his prize covered in the blood of his wife’s soulmate. A pregnant woman forcing a smile who, in the dark hours of the night, whispered to her too young daughter. 

_“Ignore that voice in your head Pansy. They hold the promise of the world… but they’ll only bring you pain.”_

Ignore him, her mother said. Ignore then as Pansy stared around the Great-hall three years in a row hearing the school song in her head as hundreds of students sand at the same time. Ignore him, even though he had to be a first-year just like she was since they started singing the song on the same night at the same time. Ignore him as she caught Potter, Granger, and Weasley singing in some strange language that didn’t exist and couldn’t be copied all the while matching that boy in her head. 

Pansy was bright, but it didn’t take an intelligent person to put two and two together. Ron Weasley, the blood-traitor, the girl who lived’s best friend, was her soulmate. And she’d known it since she was eleven years old. 

She avoided him, heeding her mother’s warning. Pansy saw it in her head, the one picture her mother had of her soulmate, a man frozen in time. A moving picture as Pansy’s mother introduced a Muggle to what magic could do and the utterly awed expression on his face as he reached up and kissed her mother. Merlin, her mother had been so happy in that picture.   
And yet she kept almost running into him! 

In the hallways where he was walking with the two girls, and she’d been forced to abruptly change direction lest she run into them. Or when Draco decided he needed to fight Potter and Pansy had to act her part and laugh at all the proper places because her father was in Draco’s pocket. Or when, Merlin forbid, they ended up in the same bloody compartment when a Dementor attacked! How was that her luck!? And then she’d done the stupidest thing in her life and sang in front of him. Pansy blamed the unsettled feeling from the Dementor’s attack on that impulse. Thankfully Weasley was too stupid to notice she was his soulmate… which some secret part of her was rather upset about.

She was grateful when things went back to normal after the attack. She avoided Weasley, and he ignored her. It worked. Pansy would marry whoever her father decided, and she’d never become a blood-traitor because Weasley happened to sing her her head. He’d never be a bloody stain on the ground because she’d given it like her mother had. She was fine without a soulmate. 

_“Miss Parkinson, as I had predicted. We would find you a partner in no time.”_

Perhaps Pansy should put more stock in how determined the universe was to place soulmates together. Her avoidance tactics barely lasted two and a half years, and now Ronald Weasley was her literal partner in class, a class she’d taken on a whim. Because somehow both their original partners quit. Pansy doubted she’d forgive Daphne for this any time soon.

So so she stared anywhere but at her Divination partner and he stared anywhere but at her. They had a project to finish together. But neither of them were all that confident they’d get it done unless, of course, they started talking. Which they refused to do. Pansy did not want to destroy her reputation for the red-haired moron, who might very well realize what she was when they actually spoke. Ron was convinced she was hatching some wicked plot with her ‘snakey’ brain. 

The group project lay between them, and still, they refused to talk. 

Sybil sighed at the pair. They’d have to get over it eventually, as Albus had told her, cooperation between Slytherin’s and Gryffindor’s was a must with the uncertain future before them. They’d adjust, or they’d fail… and she’d simply put them on another team project together. It could be fun. Perhaps a prediction to that effect? Yes, that would help.

“My children! I have seen! Cooperation between you is crucial to the future!” 

Pansy rolled her eyes, and Ron huffed both sarcastic in the face of their professors nonsense. But no, they definitely hadn’t agreed on that. They hadn’t!

 

* * *

 

“Bloody hell,” Holly swore when she came too. Fuzzy shapes jerked to attention, a furred head perked, and someone handed over her glasses. Holly shoved them onto her nose and glanced around at the ragged members of her family. “What happened.” She deadpanned at their expressions. 

Ginny sitting on the end of her bed, explained calmly: “the dementors swarmed when we started the pick-up game started. They targeted you almost instantly.”

Holly remembered suddenly and exhaled. She’d been the one to suggest the game feeling a bit too claustrophobic in the school since she couldn’t go to Hogsmead. She’d dragged together several people, and they’d grabbed more from other houses to create a fun quidditch match to relax. And then the field had been swarmed when it hadn’t at any other game before.

“Freaking Diggory didn’t even care, he was right there and didn’t even attempt to catch you when you fell.” Groused George, who had a nasty gash across his face.

“Pretty sure that was because he was behind her and didn’t notice-” Hermione trailed off and hurriedly said when they all glared her way: “-I mean, that… rat- no not rat… uh… cockroach! What a terrible person…” The group ignored Hermione, who trailed off with a faint blush.

“Thankfully, you fell past Fred, and I saw your hair and lunged.”

“Was one of the most wicked things I’ve ever seen.” Ron said grinning ear to eat, “George threw himself from his broom to grab you out of mid-air, then Fred caught up and grabbed him.” 

“Might’ve dislocated your shoulder.” George glanced away, “Sorry about that, Pomfrey fixed you right up, though.”

“Ah,” Holly rubbed the back of her head, “better than a shattered spine and death… thanks, guys, for saving me.” She flopped back onto her pillow as Padfoot climbed up, trying his best to avoid Madam Pomfrey’s gaze, animals weren’t allowed in the hospital wing after all. Her family covered him well enough, Ginny and Ron shielded him with their bodies and the twins spoke loud enough to hide any whines he might have given off. They’d truthfully all started covering for the dog, especially since Padfoot insisted on attending her classes, Potions and defense specifically, which had given both Lupin and Snape fits. 

Snape had actually kicked her out the one time he’d spotted him, and Lupin had turned a fascinating shade of white. 

“What did Dumbledore say about it? How’d you get rid of the dementors?”

“Lupin was passing by, he used that shield of his again,” Ron explained, “came out as some sort of four-legged thing this time… Hermione called it uh-”

“The Patronus charm.”

“Yeah, that, we agreed that we’d all try to learn it… you in?”

“Of course.” Anything to keep those creatures the hell away from her and her soul. “When we do start?”

“What is that animal doing in my hospital!” 

"Uh oh."

 

* * *

 

Shanks ducked under Rayleigh’s sword and brought his own to match. His haki flickered along the blade before failing to his ire. Observation haki he could handle, but armament continued to give him trouble, especially in a combat situation.

Behind him, Buggy was sliced to pieces again, and the parts caused havoc to his haki. Shanks grit his teeth as Buggy screamed in anger and distress as he tried to rebuild his body while curious out Shanks and his name. Shanks valiantly attempted to keep focused on his training-

“All Shank’s fault-” a piece of Buggy’s ass dropped right in front of him, and Shanks tripped. Truthfully he avoided Rayleigh’s next attack as a result as the first mate took advantage of his distraction. 

“Oi!” he swung around toward Buggy and kicked the piece back toward his friend: “keep that to yourself! I need to bleach my eyes now!” especially since Buggy couldn’t control his clothing either.

“This is all your fault! If you hadn’t-”

“You’re the one who-”

“Well if you-”

Around them, the crew sighed as another argument explosively built up. Thankfully this time, it didn’t last as the skies opened up, and enormous elephant-sized pieces of hail started to fall toward the ocean. It caused the crew to launch into action to keep the ship safe, especially the vulnerable sail. Rayleigh, already knocking aside the larger of the pieces, noted the location of their youngest members and discovered Buggy covering and Shanks laughing in pleasure as chaos reigned. 

Rayleigh heaved a sigh; the boys were entirely too different. Buggy was the type to panic when something went wrong. While Shanks found it more and more amusing the worse things seemed to go. 

“They liven the ship up,” Roger told him, reading his thoughts as he leaned on the helm, sending them away from the storm as Rouge casually knocked aside a chunk of ice, getting a touch too close to her. “I know you, Rayleigh, you’d be bored out of your mind if you didn’t get to toss them around each day.” 

Rayleigh didn’t answer that, even if it were true. 

“Oh look.” Rouge leaned over the railing with a squeal: “a starlight shower!” they glanced to the port side and watched as the sky cleared. In the distance, the falling hail glittered like shooting stars in the dark. The pieces fell to the ocean splashing into the water, making it look as though the sea itself had become the night sky. Rouge watched in pleased awe all the while Roger watched her. 

Rayleigh excused himself quickly after taking in the view. He knew what would come next with the affectionate pair, and he had no need to see his captain like that a third time. 

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

Then again, perhaps the obnoxious displays of affection would be better than the two brats and their arguing.

 

* * *

 

Hermione collapsed into bed, and Holly lifted her gaze from her homework to peer at her friend. Her soulmate sang in her head as she did, a random jaunty in his language that sounded new to her, he was likely only just learning it. Personally, Holly was a bit surprised that what he sang came across relatively clear to her. She was learning his language and quick, hopefully, she’d be fluent one day soon.

Setting aside her homework Holly tossed her legs over the side of the bed. Briefly, she caught a glimpse of Hermione’s new necklace and mentally patted herself on the back, she’d figured it out. Striding toward Hermione’s bed, Holly dropped onto the end and casually leaned back till she was on top of Hermione’s legs. 

“Soooo.” She drawled, “how told you not to tell us about the time-turner?” 

Hermione shrieked launching off the bed, she kicked Holly in the shoulder as she scrambled back and frantically flipped over: “who told you!” she rushed to say. 

“No one.” Holly confessed, “Ron and I guessed after you were in both our classes at the same time. McGonagall gave it to you, right?” Holly reached forward, and Hermione allowed her to hook her fingers under the golden chain to pull it from her shirt. Holly took a moment to inspect the small time-piece that had literal time-traveling powers. “Never give this back.”

“Holly!” Hermione snatched it back and swatted her hand; “it’s not to be abused! Terrible things happen to those that travel in time!”

“Terrible things happen to people even when they don’t.” Holly pointed out shrewdly. “And… Voldemort is kind of running around as a shade right now, it’s only a matter of time until he shows up again.” Holly wasn’t stupid, she knew Voldemort was a wraith, and she’d done plenty of research on them. Dumbledore might be trying to let her have a ‘childhood,’ but Holly knew it wouldn’t last; besides, thanks to the Dursley’s, she hadn’t had a childhood in the first place. “So, if we have this… maybe we can change the future?” 

Hermione gaped: “That’s… that’s not its intended use!” 

Holly didn’t look at her as she added: “and also, you should use it to get some sleep. Your bags have bags right now.” Holly might blame the Weasley’s a bit or her pirate of a soulmate, but the rules were really beginning to not matter to her anymore. It wasn’t like they’d done anything for her in the first place. The rules and laws hadn’t gotten her away from the Dursley’s, 

“Holly, I can’t!” 

Holly made a face returning to leaning against Hermione’s legs before she confessed the truth: “Ron and I are worried Hermione, at this rate, you’ll be sent to the hospital.” She tilted her head, “but if you really can’t use it to sleep, maybe you should drop a few courses? Do you really need Muggle studies?” 

“I do!” 

“Then…” Holly shrugged helplessly.

“But… I can’t… I’m not allowed… I…” 

Holly huffed an annoyed breath when she felt the bed dip and glanced to the side. Padfoot had returned. Her dog tilted his head at the chain in Hermione’s hands, chuffed at them, then dropped into the blankets with little care. Holly frowned at his paws, which were covered in some unknown potion and pressed her lips together. She really was beginning to suspect- a bang and twin groans sounded nearby, and the girls jumped slightly when she heard a pair of familiar voices frantically yelling.

“We’re innocent! I swear it!”

Holly rolled her eyes, once again the twins pranked someone and were faking innocence. It had been happening all year. Holly dismissed them as McGonagall’s voice pitched in fury and refocused on Hermione, who definitely needed sleep. Now, if only she could convince her friend to abuse the power she’d been given. 


	7. Storm Warning

Moony was forced behind that man's mind, trapped immobile in his own body. The wizard, that pathetic being, was poisoning them both to keep his control. It hurt. Both of them were in agony as wolfs-bane spread through their system, one dose at a time. Wolf's only appreciation for this act was that the wizard suffered just as much.

Moony reached for control pulling on the powers of the moon. His claws scraped across the ground, and her scent filled his nose. Internally he screamed a howl that shook the wizard's mind; he cried a song of longing, protection, and grief. 

_**MINE. PACK. GO TO HER.** _

Moony knew this was a pointless act, the wizard had never listened before and wouldn't now even if her scent was that close. Even if they'd both seen her within their new den. The cub walked the halls clueless of who they were, wandered alone, pack-less but for the two cubs at her side. No mate guarded her, no alpha watched over her. It should have been them to raise her. Them to teach her how to hunt and survive. 

The wizard was a fool. 

_NO. Not safe._

The wizard kept them away, wrestling away the control Moony gained and forced them still. But now the wizard had taken it a step too far, he had trapped Moony within his own body as the moon sang her call. The wizard had poisoned them to prevent Moony from approaching their cub. 

Moony recalled the nights after his pack's death. The first moon he'd had control and had awoken in the wilderness. It took a mere moment for him to realize what happened to Prongs and his mate. They were dead, their pack bonds ripped away, leaving him screaming his sorrows to the moon that gave him life. He was alone, alone without a pack, without a soul to wander with, in the forests. But perhaps not. Moony knew the scent of the cub, could still feel her presence in his core. 

The cub, Holly, was alive and in need of protection.

Moony had tried to reach her that night, sprinting heedless of his own body demands toward her. He ran until his paws bled and he foamed at the mouth from the sheer exhaustion of it. Moony knew his time-limit; he could always sense the moon power and knew when it would pull its strength from him, returning control to the man. 

He reached her just as the sky crested with light. He approached on four bloodied paws and scented her within the temporary den she had been placed in. Then, by force, he relinquished his control, having faith the wizard would claim her. She was pack, she was their cub, she was theirs to raise and protect.

But the wizard did not claim her. He fled the home, leaving no sign but a set of bloodied paw prints that he had ever been around Holly Lily Potter. Moony, aggravated and confused, tried again for the next moon. But once again, the wizard did not approach. 

The third moon after Moony woke chained to the floor in a basement that scented like fear and hatred. Moony nearly killed himself trying to escape, to find and reach his cub. At that moment, he cursed the wizard for daring to deny him this, swore he would get free, and reach his cub.  

By the fourth moon, Moony knew the wizard would never allow him to have his cub. The man would continue to live on pack-less heedless of what it was doing to their mind and magic. And Moony would continue to be chained. The wizard betrayed the pack, and Moony ensured he was punished for that injustice. Moony, as he woke every moon chained down, rent his claws through his own body. He would show the world that the wizard was a traitor. He punished the man, clawed into his skin, and he howled at the wizard, never giving him a moment's rest.

The wizard, Remus Lupin, was a traitor to the pack and to themselves. 

Now, years later, Moony was more trapped than even with his cub so very close. Furiously, Moony snarled, claws ripping at his wrists. The cub was in reach, he could scent her in the air, and yet he could not reach her. 

Moony would not let the man rest, never. Poison or not, this was his body, his night, and he'd regain control by any means necessary. 

Hours later, Remus lifted his battered body up on weakened arms. Blood coated the floor where the monster inside him attacked itself when he'd gotten too weak to keep control. Weakly Remus lifted his wand and summoned a Protronus to call Poppy. He needed help and realized quickly that he could not reach the infirmary under his own power. 

Remus realized it quickly, the wolf was still too strong under the full moon's draw. He would have to speak to Severus about strengthen the wolfs-bane to push it farther back. It would kill him faster, but Remus would finally be safe to be around the children and her. It would be better for Holly and the other children if he, and by extension the wolf was weaker. 

Holly…

Remus closed his eyes shoving the wolf back as it growled furiously in his mind. It was ever demanding he go claim their cub. The wolf didn't understand the little nuances of being human. The wolf didn't know what would happen to him or Holly if he let it truly loose.

A traitorous part of his mind corrected that statement, one that screamed that the wolf was safer than Holly's pet.

Remus had realized it in an instant. No matter how much his wolf weakened him the night before, no matter much how it howled enraged at the presence of the dementors. No matter how firmly it shoved at his consciousness when Remus finally saw her after all those years. Remus had been focused enough to notice after he saw it with her. 

The dog had been unconscious at Holly's side. Its head had been in her lap, and it' body laid out between the door, where the dementor had been, and Holly. The breed, the size, the name had been unmistakable. Sirius Black had reached the cub but hadn't... hadn't hurt her. Remus couldn't fathom it, not even after gentle inquires that led him to learn Sirius had been at her side for a month without hurting her.

The children were clearly clueless about his true identity, and the nickname had been a coincidence. Remus honestly started to convince himself he was wrong; the dog was just an unfortunately named Muggle mutt. But then the pranking began.

Remus grew up with Sirius, he knew his former friend's methods, and the unknown prankster matched the man far too well. Severus, the victim of many of those pranks, also recognized the technique. Severus was, as a result, actively trying to convince Dumbledore every staff meeting that Black was near. No one believed him, not without a sighting. No one but Remus that was, he, however, was firmly seated in denial. 

The truth of it was, Remus couldn't handle the idea that Sirius and the dog were one and the same. His mind would crack if Sirius indeed was innocent and had suffered twelve years in Azkaban for nothing! So Remus pretended the dog was just a dog, and the prankster was just some bright student.

He brutally ignored the wolf that insisted the dog, and Sirius scented the same. Just as the wolf told him that Peter's pack bond never broke so he could be alive. 

He ignored it. Threw his head in the sand, stuck his hands in his ears, and denied it. Sirius was not innocent. He was not. And Holly, she would be better without him and the wolf.

Please let it be a trick of the mind.

 

* * *

  
"I don't think my memory is happy enough," Ron admitted scratching his chin in thought. So far, he'd managed to get a wisp of silver but nothing fully formed; none of them yet, in fact.

In an empty classroom on the third floor, a small group was practicing the Patronus charm. The group included the four younger Weasley's, Hermione, and Holly. Hermione had transfigured a fake dementor, which was really a mannequin with a sheet over it, for help with their spell. Otherwise, books on the subject littered the floor, some bought by Owl-order, others borrowed from friends, or from the library. 

They had been at it for several weeks and by that point several hours for that one day. Currently, only the twins, Ron, and Holly had managed wisps, while Ginny and Hermione hadn't gotten even that.

"Which one are you using?" Ginny asked cross-logged on the floor with a book in her lap. 

Blushing slightly, Ron mumbled something and looked away, causing them all to give him a considering look. 

"Ronnie-kins… what-cha thinking about?" George's expression took on a foxy look as he nudged Fred, both ready to tease.

"The first time I heard my soulmate's voice." He rushed to say before they got too bad with the teasing or started to come up with other reasons as to why he was blushing. Like the first time, he- ahem, never mind. 

"That won't work." Hermione spoke up, "the witch Malia Armitage suggested memories associated with soulmates would backfire when it comes to a dementor since they pull at your soul. She suggests using a memory associated with the soul would put them in danger."

"There's no proof of that, it's just a theory." Holly said from the window. She was staring out at the forest at the dementors she could see occasionally appeared at the boundary to the school. The sight of their forms made her skin crawl, but it helped her focus on her spell and the reason they were learning it. The Dementors were unnaturally obsessed with her, and Holly did not want her soulmate suffering through the unknown of their attacks any longer.

"It might be," Hermione responded, "so I've been attempt to use a memory from my childhood, rather than one associated with my soulmate." 

"Oh yeah, and how's that working for you 'Mione?" Ron eyed Hermione's wand where nothing had happened the entire time they'd been working. The girl hadn't even gotten a wisp like Ron had. Hermione naturally had nothing to say to that and turned with a huff back to her attempts. 

Holly left them too it as she sank her hands into Padfoot's fur. The theory could be right, or it could be harmful to their attempts. Holly's best memories were associated with singing and him, so… perhaps she ought to try it. To think of him and what he meant to her. To focus on the feeling of anticipation of the moment they'd finally meet. She could picture it vaguely, his face was nothing but a shadow in her mind, but his voice was as clear as day with how often she'd heard it.  Holly would go running into his arms, and he'd lift her up, spinning her in excitement… he'd be taller than her, of course, so she'd be lifted clear off her feet. With utter joy, he'd beg for her name, and he'd whisper it in a husky tone before leaning forward and pressing their lips together for the very first time.

Holly's eyes snapped open, and she twisted on the spot: "Expecto Protronum!" 

Silver exploded from her wand, four clawed paws touched the ground, and a little body shook as if amused. Twisting a small head around, it glanced at her with a broad smile and inclined its head.

"Wow!"

"Holly, how'd you do it?!"

"A hyena?" Fred spoke up. They all rushed over, admiring the animal in the room, "you must have a great sense of humor, Hols." 

Holly released the spell as she felt a fierce drain on her magic, and the silvery animal vanished with a shaking inaudible laugh. She gasped a bit, admitting to herself that there was a reason so few people could cast that spell. It was incredibly taxing on her magic. Still, Holly couldn't stop herself from smiling. She'd done it. 

"I just thought about my soulmate, about meeting them one day and what I'd feel then," she shrugged a little, "and it just sort of worked."

"Brilliant, I'm going to try it," George announced, he and Fred rushed back to their corners to rethink the memories they wanted to use. Hermione wasn't terribly impressed, but progress was progress, and Holly had gotten the spell to work first, so she was willing to try it. Ron clapped her on the shoulder and gave her a thumbs-up before trying the spell himself again. While Ginny started to loudly theorize why she'd gotten a hyena of all things. Most theories suggested Patronus took the form of what you found safe or what you loved. So why did Holly get a hyena? 

Taking a short break herself, Holly glanced back out the window as Padfoot placed his head against her leg. He looked almost proud of her if dogs could look proud, and Holly gave him a little grin. She'd done it. Now she could protect herself and her soulmate the next time the damned things attacked her. 

Little did she know Sirius was proud. If he'd been human, he would have been glowing with it. His pup had performed the Patronus charm at thirteen, a full corporal Patronus at an unheard-of age. She was so gifted! Merlin, he wished he could brag… unfortunately, he had no one to brag too. 

 

* * *

  
In the end, Holly was the only one to get a full Patronus, though the twins had come close. Holly suspected this was less because of the memories used and more because of the cost of magic it took to bring forth a full animal. The group was still going to try though. As Hermione said, a wisp was better than nothing Ginny cited. 

Otherwise, the school year continued on despite the dementor presence. Several students got too close to the forest during April and had nearly lost their souls. The fall out had been intense and coupled with a lack of Sirius Black sightings, caused massive outrage among the parents. Hermione believed it would only be a matter of time before Fudge caved to the pressures, and the dementors were removed from the picture. It was something the entire school population was looking forward to.

On the other hand, the school remained rather cheerful due to the actions of a rather proactive prankster. An 'epic' prank occurred every Friday against Severus Snape and Remus Lupin like clockwork, which had both professors absolutely twitchy and jumping at nothing. Holly suspected one Friday nothing would actually happen, and the pair would be jumpy and paranoid the whole day. Otherwise, a multitude of small pranks seemed to plague the general populace throughout the rest of the week. For example, one afternoon, the entire school ended up with randomized hair colors. The next afternoon four notorious bullies in Slytherin were strung up with fake boobs in the Great hall. The Slytherins had no idea how it occurred or who did it, and yet they vowed revenge. However, with no culprit, the students' victims, including a rather odd Ravenclaw and a pair of eleven-year-old Slytherins, had no one to thank.

In April, Professor Lupin discovered a bogart in one of the empty classrooms and 'borrowed it' for a lesson on the creatures. Having already learned about the monsters and the charm used to defeat them, most of the class was excited to practice the riddikulus spell for real.

Most of the class that was.

They stood in a huge line, Slytherin's and Gryffindor's mixed up as they took turns one by one to face the boggart. So far, the most hilarious of the boggart transformations had been professor Snape in Neville's grandmother's clothing, which would be the talk of the school for weeks. It was prank level, yet not from their resident prankster, who most believed had to be a first-year. Hermione's boggart ended up being professor Mcgonegall, who ended up acting like a cat in her human form as a nod to Hermione's pet Crookshanks and the woman's animegus form. 

Following Hermione, Ron stepped up, and the boggart revealed an enormous spider for his worst fear. With a flick of his wrist and a determined voice, Ron put roller-skates on the thing, and it tripped up, causing a new rush of laughter from the class. Grinning, Ron stepped aside, and Pansy, who happened to be lined up behind him, stepped forward. 

She and Ron were officially divination partners by then, and neither of the appreciated it. Holly and Hermione had heard about their bickering ever since Hermione dropped the class. Ironically, however, their partnership resulted in a massive boost in grades for both Pansy and Ron. Despite their fights, they worked very well together in class, and it was a growing source of debate for the rest of the class. 

Pansy shot Ron a glare as she stepped up, and he scowled at her making a face. As they did, Holly leaned over to Hermione and whispered. "I swear they actually like each other in secret, this has to be a show." 

"I'm convinced Ron, and she will be dating by next year, the real question is when he tells us about it."

Holly huffed, "it's not like we'll judge him, it's not like it's Malfoy."

"She is a Slytherin though, maybe he thinks we won't approve."

"Maybe."

They shut up as Ron joined them, and the boggart facing Pansy settled on a form of a pair of people. A woman who had Pansy's hair and a man with a furious glare on his face.  After a second, the man snarling stormed toward Pansy aggressively. Pansy, clearly afraid, automatically stepped backward, bumping in Daphne Greengrass, who stood behind her. As the man opened his mouth, he spat at Pansy. 

"A blood-traitor, how dare you sully our family-" Pansy flinched back as several things happened at once. Ron made an aborted step forward almost protectively. While Pansy lifted her wand to do something, anything. She was frozen there as the man loomed over her, trapped in place until Daphne Greengrass snatched hold of Pansy's robes and dragged the girl behind her. Whoever the man was, a man whom the Slytherin's all recognized, paused then his form twisted away. 

Their professor then seemed to realize he ought to have interrupted, his delayed reaction angering a large amount of the class. Holly gave Lupin the benefit of the doubt purely because he looked like he was about to sick up, he was so pale. Thankfully for him, Daphne was more than equipped to handle her own worst fear. 

The man transformed into an enormous Snake, and Daphne only paled slightly before her wand spun, and it tangled like a pretzel and found itself trapped. As it struggled, several students laughed, Daphne shot a look backward. The expression on her face wasn't overly clear to most, but Holly read it in an instant. Pansy was still shaking, and the girl needed a friend, Daphne wanted someone to take over the boggart so she could get Pansy away. 

Holly was one of few to read the intentions on Daphne's face, and closest. She stepped forward, passing Pansy without a word and took Daphne's spot in the front dragging the boggarts attention from Daphne to her. 

"Thanks Potter," Daphne said under her breath as she took Pansy's arm and dragged her to the back of the classroom to calm down. Holly didn't respond as she stared the boggart down. It focused on her and its form twisted. Concentrated on what could be her worst fear, she missed Ron following Daphne and Pansy with his eyes, worry evident across his face. Holly dared not look back as the boggart settled on a familiar form. 

It was her. 

Holly's stood mirrored as her other self opened her mouth and nothing came out. Her mirror was mute. Holly's breath came out in a rush, she should have expected it. She had theorized a dozen different possibilities, including a dementor and Voldemort. But she never expected- she should have-

She lifted her wand mind blank at how to make herself amusing when their professor appeared, placing himself between her and the boggart. Holly exhaled deeply as the boggart twisted once more taking herself away and replacing it with a… potion vial? No, it changed immediately after to a white orb floating in the sky. Lupin lifted his wand and flicked it, causing the globe to transform into a balloon that popped and went flying back into the cupboard. 

Left stunned Holly glanced up at her teacher who turned to look at her, she was left reeling as his eyes, typically brown, caught hers. His eyes had changed to the shade of molten gold, Professor Lupin opened his mouth to address the class, and Holly caught a glimpse of fang. Then he abruptly shut up, flinched, and his eyes returned to normal. 

"That's enough for today." He forced through his lips and darted backward slightly as if he were afraid to be close to her. As he did, his hands gripped together shaking as if he were terrified of his own shadow. Yet, he smiled. "Early release today, go have fun." And attempted to shoo them from the class. 

The class didn't wait, Daphne rushed Pansy out, and Hermione grabbed Holly to do the same. 

The intent on her face, the moment they were away from Lupin and his class, Hermione rounded on Holly and Ron both. A sudden clarity in her eyes as she announced the truth. "I think… I think Professor Lupin is a werewolf!" giving them a brand new reason to suspect Remus Lupin. 

 

* * *

 

Daphne Greengrass had no intention of taking advantage of the situation, but others would. The Gryffindor's might not realize what had happened, Daphne believed few would come to the correct guess, but the Slytherin's would. So Daphne waited until Pansy finally stopped shaking to say it.

"Which one is it?" 

Pansy flinched, arms around her knees she lifted her face and stared at Daphne through her hair, but she didn't speak.

Daphne continued unperturbed by this. "Your boggart was the Dark Lord a year ago." Daphne knew that for a fact, she had been visiting Pansy's side when they'd happened upon a boggart in the Greengrass family home. Somehow it had gotten into the house during the holiday's and her sickly grandfather hadn't cleaned enough to have noticed it. He had come running when she and Pansy had freaked at the red-eyed visage they'd heard about only in stories. Daphne would not soon forget the way her grandfather collapsed to the ground and begged for mercy before realizing what had happened. 

"It's your father now, Pansy… explain." 

Many would assume Pansy's fear, having recognized her father for who he was, came from the same reason as many other Slytherins. They'd believe that Pansy's father was violent. Daphne would say the man was, but he always had been, and whatever made Pansy fear the man was more recent. Not to mention the words he'd said…

"You found your soulmate… didn't you?" 

It should have been something that caused Pansy to run to Daphne in joy. Something that would have had them both cheering over, something to be proud of, something amazing. But Daphne knew such things weren't so simple in a pure-blood family. Not for Daphne who's father was planning her betrothal already as he spoke with Lucius Malfoy. Not for Theodore, whose soulmate was decided male and incapable of carrying the family line. Not for Blaise, who had found his in a step-sister as his mother plotted her new husband's death. And not for Pansy who very likely had-

"Swear you won't tell." Pansy lifted her gaze furiously. A true witch's power in her eyes as they glowed with accidental magic. Her emotions bled through revealing the power of her core, not many of the current pure-blood generation had a power like that. And none had glowed with the power Potter's had when the dementor attacked them.

"I swear not to use it against it unless our friendship should shatter," Daphne swore instead. Pansy accepted it well enough, for all that they'd been trained not to, they trusted each other. They were friends, as many believed Slytherin's couldn't be with all the propaganda against them.

"It's…" Pansy swallowed the name. She suspected it, she was reasonably convinced she knew her guess was right but… she hadn't spoken about it. Not outside the safety of her own thoughts. Still, she trusted Daphne and maybe her friend could help fix this. "Weasley." 

"…" Daphne tilted her head, "Which one?" 

Pansy choked and gave a soft moan as she dropped her head backward. "Ron, obviously! Do you think those blasted twins or the girl would be my match? Honestly!" 

"Well." Daphne hedged slightly, "it's not like I know anything about Ronald Weasley either… do you?" 

Pansy stretched out her body as she relaxed. Daphne wasn't going to judge her for something she couldn't exactly help, not like her parents would. "Not really." She wiggled her toes in her shoes to distract herself, "beyond the obvious obnoxious way he eats." Her nose scrunched, "and… well, he's decent at divination, not a bad partner even if his personality leaves much to be desired." 

"He's loyal." Daphne mused thinking on what she did know. As she spoke this, she watched Pansy's reaction to see how bad it was. "He sticks with Potter like a guard dog, not to mention brave-"

"He's a Gryffindor." Pansy scoffed, and Daphne quickly corrected her. 

"One that put himself between us, Granger, and Potter and a dementor. That's not the average Gryffindor bravery, that's knight in shining armor level." 

Pansy's cheeks flamed, and Daphne internally cringed. She was right, but she was hoping Pansy wouldn't react. There was a reason Pansy was scared of her father, and it would be easier for everyone involved if she didn't have feelings for Weasley. "Are you sure he's your soulmate? Have you sang to each other?" 

"Obviously not." Pansy's eyes hit the roof before returning to Daphne, "we can barely stand being in the same room as each other, let alone long enough to sing."

"Then how do you know?" 

"Because I heard him." Pansy deflated quickly as she thought on the moment it happened, "he was with Granger and Potter in the hallways. Remember that night when I was behind curfew, and Snape almost caught me?" Daphne nodded, "it was because I was hiding from them. I heard them singing this song… I'd never heard it before, it… it's probably one of the dozens of Muggle languages. Still… the words, they echoed in my head at the same time they were singing." 

"So you're sure… hell, Pansy, what are you going to do?" 

"Ignore it?" Pansy shrugged helplessly, "it's not like I'll be allowed to marry him. My father… he'll kill Weasley if he finds out, he killed mother's soulmate so it wouldn't be a shock." 

"Pansy…" Daphne gazed at her soulmate in sorrow. One more Slytherin, one more of their year who'd never be with their true match. Just like she wouldn't… "Screw that." 

"What?!" Pansy gasped at the sudden Muggle phrase coming from Daphne's lips. 

"I said screw that!" she reiterated, "Weasley is your soulmate, and your father is a bloody cruel monster. Why should you deny true love just because he might find out? No! No, we're not going to do that. You hear me! You and I are going to come up with a plan so you and Weasley are together. And… and we'll make one for Blaise too! Bloody Black's already marry their cousins, he can damned well marry his sister!" Daphne stood up as she spoke, her posture turning aggressive and her magic churning dangerously as she firmed up her choice.

She was not going to be like the generation before her. Clearly, they fucked up with the arranged marriages, after all, most of the previous generation was dead or imprisoned. That wasn't going to be her!

"You don't even know if I want to be with him!" Pansy argued her single point, and Daphne ruthlessly ignored it. 

"Weasley doesn't know you're his soulmate, so we'll just keep him clueless. Instead, you don't sing around him, and you get to know him. That was you can discover if you want to marry him and how much we have to risk to ensure it." Daphne nodded to herself firmly, "Right, come on. We have to plan your next Divination class. You're going to seduce Weasley by the end of next year at the latest!" 

"Daphne!"

"Chop chop, Pansy! We have a twelve-step plan to complete!" 

 

* * *

  
The year had been too normal. The year previous had basilisk attacks and Voldemort in a diary, and the year before that was Quirrel-mort. Now this year, there were dementors but no actual attack on her person otherwise. She didn't like it and was growing more paranoid as the year went on. Honestly, she was expecting Black to come popping out of the woodworks any second now to murder her. 

Holly sat in an alcove writing carefully in her journal as she attempted to translate her soulmate's latest song into English. She was getting faster and faster at doing it as she learned more words and used the language more fluently. Soon she, and Hermione would both be completely fluent in the language Holly was referring to as 'Soul-lish.'

_"Oh, as I went home on Monday night, as drunk as drunk could be."_ She laughed slightly at the lyrics knowing her soulmate was trying to cheer her up with the playful song. He was incredibly good at telling when she was in a mood. 

_"I saw a horse outside the door, where my old horse should be"_

She laughed slightly and wrote the lyrics down to sing back to him after he was don; that way, he could correct her 'soul-lish' accent. Before she sang the translation and corrected him in return. Though he was picking up English far faster than she was picking up 'soul-lish.' Honestly, it was like he was being helped, which would not be fair.

_"Well, I called me wife and I said to her, 'will you kindly tell to me.; who owns that horse outside the door, where my old horse should be?'"_

Holly snickered as his voice slurred dramatically, he was pretending to be drunk while singing. Or was he drunk? He could be, it wasn't like she could see him and tell. Regardless Holly picked up the next line as they ran through the song. All the while, she thought about the next song she should translate for him. As she did, she heard a laugh in his voice and allowed a fond expression to escaped her. He was always checking on her through song, especially now that they could speak the same language. He had dozens of different songs to regale her with, ones that started her morning by wishing her a good one. Endless songs about the sea, love, and pirates. He had songs that expressed a desire to learn how her day was. And he songs that gave her a hint into his own. 

If she sang about a lousy day using a song literally titled 'bad day,' he'd return with dozens of pleasant ones to turn her mood. He'd even picked up her 'bad day' song and sang it if he had one, and she'd return the favor, sometimes just singing nonsense to help in whatever way she could. 

The truth was, she was entirely in love with him already, but she was terrified at what would happen if she told him that. Don't get her wrong, Holly wanted to but… but she wanted to say that in person.

Love put through song was common, very common, but… somehow it didn't feel right for her. 

Holly sighed and flipped her page as her soulmate stopped the cheery song, sensing from her tone that the one he was singing was no long cheering her up. Holly wished she could apologize. Holly appreciated it, but… while nothing had gone wrong with her day, she was in a mood. 

A world away Shanks frowned. His soulmate had been a bit tense lately, to the point it came out in her voice. He didn't know what seemed to be bothering her, but he suspected it was the time of the year. Soon it would be the summer season in the East Blue, and that matched the period where her voice nearly ceased all singing entirely. This phase had occurred twice in the past two years, and Shanks had taken note of it. He just hoped it was temporary had it had been in the past.

"Gonna wish I had a storm warning~!" 

Shanks paused, listening to the deep voice singing nearby and perked. A new song. Eagerly he sped through the crowds on the island as the lyrics hit his ears, and he grinned wider. This would be an excellent song to sing to his soulmate. The song continued until he found the performer encircled by a large crowd. From what Roger had been able to tell the island they'd docked at was amid their monthly sing-along, but they seemed to take it a bit more seriously. 

The entire island was having a party. Everyone celebrating and huge sales going on for the day. Performers were on the streets, and a huge area near the coast had been cleared for the sing-along. When night fell, everyone on the island would go to the beaches and raise their voices in one single song designed for the island about the island. Shanks had already accepted a lyrics sheet so he could learn the words and sing along when the time came. He had already memorized just in case it helped now that he could and would translate when the time came.

Maybe this time, he would sing the location to her in her language, and she'd get a real idea of where he was and that he was looking for her. 

"I'm gonna wish I had a sign~" sang the performer, and Shanks snorted. He knew that feeling. 

Idly Shanks glanced around as the singer continued looking for someone from the crew. Rayleigh had emphasized the need to be aware of who was around them at all times, a by-product of their observation haki training. The first-mate had also suggested he might be attacking Shanks at random while they were docked as part of their training. While also implying Roger would be doing the same, but Shanks doubted that. Mostly because Roger and Rouge had taken off the second they could 'like a pair of giggling teenagers,' to quote Rayleigh. Shanks wasn't so naive anymore to not realize what they were going to do while docked, though he was avoiding thinking about it.

In the distance, he spotted a flash of blue and focused on it with a smirk. Only one person he knew had hair that shade, Buggy. A mischievous look crossed his face, and Shanks moved to follow his friend.

Back in Hogwarts, Holly jerked as someone spoke her name in a raspy unused voice. She lifted her attention from her journal as she was pulled from her melancholy thoughts to find Professor Lupin standing several feet away. Merlin, Holly hadn't even heard him enter the hallway. She didn't know he could walk that softly.

"Professor?" she answered, almost wary.

"You don't need to fear cub." He answered, and paranoia rushed upwards. It had been too quiet after all. 

"I'm sorry?" she put her journal down, and subtly grabbed her wand. But Lupin did not approach. Instead, he stared at her with molten gold eyes. 

"No." He rasped out, "I am the one who is sorry, cub." He still didn't step forward, and Holly slowly slid to a standing position to equalize them slightly out of instinct. 

"Why?" 

His head ducked slightly, and it was distinctly canine about it. He didn't bare his throat or anything, but the meek posture was apologetic. Lupin stood like he was trying to make himself smaller, and it was honestly calming. 

"Because I failed you cub… I should have been there for you, I should have claimed you, and I didn't." 

"What do… do you mean?" Holly lowered her wand slightly.

"May I approach?" 

Holly eyed Lupin cautiously, at the liquid gold eyes and the awareness that he was a werewolf. Hermione and Ron had given her plenty of horror stories, but Holly was trying to reserve judgment. She didn't really care that he was furry once a month, but rather that he was eerily focused on Padfoot. Still, Holly was Gryffindor enough and curious enough to allow him near, even with gold canine eyes. 

"Okay." 

Lupin shifted moving much faster than Holly believed he could and suddenly dropped to a knee before her. Holly gaped, staring downward as he tilted his head up to look at her and began to speak. 

"I… was friends with your parents." 

And shook the foundations of her world. 

 

* * *

 

Shanks rounded the corner that Buggy had wandered into and peered into a darkened alley. Instantly Shanks stopped and lifted his guard as he cast a wary eye into the darkness. He'd seen the darker parts of the world, and even if he could still hear the loud music of the festival, the alley was an eerie reminder that crueler things lingered in the world. 

The memory of a bloodied body, shaking hands, and his stomach rebelling nearly caused Shanks to retreat.

He couldn't see the end of the alley that Buggy had vanished into the darkness. An eerie level of it. It shouldn't have been so dark; the sun was still up for the gods' sake. Shanks flicked his eyes back toward the public street only temporarily thinking that he should leave Buggy to himself. The other teenager had been trained just like Shanks, he knew better than to get himself into too much danger. He probably didn't need Shanks to come running after him. 

Probably. 

He should just go back to the main road. Buggy was fine-

"Hey don't!-" 

Shanks snapped back to the street as someone - Buggy - gave an aborted scream. His feet carried him forward faster than his mind could think, and Shanks rushed into the darkness. Several steps in, he found a large clearing, an empty area surrounded by taller buildings on all sides. It was shadowed from the sun, a clear meeting place for those who didn't want to be seen. At the entrance hidden by darkness, Shanks stood as he took in the scene before him. 

Buggy was on his knees, hands at his stomach from a blow that Shanks hadn't seen. He was surrounded by men full-grown and a violent looking woman; she was the very image of gorgeous but cruel. Sneering, she stared down at Buggy, who looked as if she'd stepped on his heart. 

"But I thought…" Buggy choked out as he lifted his head. The woman, in response, gave a loud, cruel laugh that the men echoed. 

"Moron, as if I'm truly your match." She brushed her hair back with long nails, "I just made you think that so you'd follow me. Amazing what people will believe when you look like I do and say the right things." She batted her eyelashes, so she looked as innocent and helpless as possible.

Shanks instantly realized what happened. The woman must have pretended to hear Buggy's voice in her head, she'd tricked him into thinking he was her soulmate before leading him into this place. Into this situation. Shanks' heart hurt for Buggy at the moment, many had fallen for such tricks, and Shanks was unsure if he would have realized the truth of not. Deep down, Shanks decided then that he'd test his soulmate with her language, which no other knew before he trusted her. That decision, however, did not help him or Buggy at this moment. 

"Fuck you!" Buggy spat trying to stand. Her foot lifted and cracked into his chin before he could, and Shanks watched as Buggy's eyes rolled back, and he fell unconscious while the woman laughed. 

Alarmed, Shanks rushed forward, going for the sword at his waist. He had no idea what these people intended to do, but he wasn't going to let them hurt his Nakama any further. 

"Get away from him!" he yelled furiously. Shanks rushed forward striking out at the woman who darted back and out of range. In a moment, he stood over Buggy's body, brandishing his sword protectively between himself, Buggy, and the enemy, who quickly surrounded him. 

"Who are you?" asked one of the men pulling a gun from his side to aim it between Shanks' eyes. 

"His friend." Shanks answered, trying not to fear his nervousness show. They greatly outnumbered him. He'd have to take great care if he wanted to get himself and Buggy out of this situation safely. But it didn't help that his friend was unconscious now and unable to help. 

The woman scoffed to his answer, deciding on a whim upon seeing the flaming red shade of his hair: "bring him to." She stated. 

Swords were drawn, guns pointed, and Shanks struck out at the first man that charged him. He cut the man down and turned on his heels to take the second out from behind him. Shanks told himself it was just like any other training session. He could handle this. 

He lept into the air as a man went for his legs and kicked out in the same motion. A third man cried out as Shanks' swung out. His armament haki crawled up his sword as he focused entirely on the battle. So far, he couldn't get haki to work every time he fought, but with enough concentration, he had it working then. 

Parry, dodge, turn. Shanks flowed like Rayleigh had taught him to. Twisting under a sword and- his eyes flew wide as one of the men he hadn't noticed decided not to attack Shanks. Instead, the man aimed his gun as Buggy's head. 

"Stop, or he's dead." Was the rather simple order.

He froze, reacting far quicker than his attacks had. Then men didn't adjust to his sudden stillness. They didn't stop their attacks, and a sword brutally stabbed into his side.

Shanks cried out, automatically reaching for it. His palm met the blade, and he grabbed it fast before it could be pulled from his body. Rouge had drilled the information into him; he'd bled far more if whatever stabbed him was yanked out. 

He shot a look down, shocked. He'd been stabbed, he'd been-

"Morons! Now we have to pay for a doctor!" cried a woman voice, but Shanks couldn't look away from the blood. He'd been beaten plenty of times but never stabbed- had it hit something vital? What- what did he do-

Shanks looked up at the man who had stabbed him and bared his teeth. The bastard would pay for that! 

"Knock him out." 

The blow struck with no warning, and Shanks' word went dark.

 

* * *

 

Holly sat heavily beside Remus Lupin as he altered her perceptions of the world. 

"When I saw that boggart… I- the wolf was furious… he could smell your fear, and he wanted to rip apart the world to protect you from all dangers." Remus swallowed as he stared away from her like he couldn't bare to look at her and see her reaction to his words, to his cowardice laid bare. "And I realized that he never intended to harm you… I cannot believe I never realized that." 

Remus looked somewhere past her shoulder as he explained. "The full moon after your parents died, I was in the forest. It was the middle of nowhere, a safe place Lily found. She calculated that at a regular speed, a werewolf couldn't find civilization in any direction before the sun came up. It allowed me to transform safely while allowing my wolf to run free." 

Holly nodded along even if he wasn't looking at her. That made sense; if she were a werewolf, that would be something she'd do. Remus continued: "that night, I apparated there in my grief and when I woke up… I was in the middle of Little Wingwing right outside your aunt's home… there were bloodied paw prints on the ground below me, and your scent was in my nose." His hands wrung together, "I thought… I thought the wolf intended to kill you and had run out of time before the sun rose."

"Why?" He jerked sharply in confusion, and Holly elaborated, still trying to catch his eyes, "why would you think that?"

"I was starving, and his lingering emotions was desperation… and anger." 

Holly hummed but didn't argue that point. She instead thought the wolf had been trying to reach his 'pack' instead of gunning for her life. But this was Remus' story. 

"I fled, terrified that it wanted to hurt you. It was worse when the next moon I woke by your house again… after that, I locked myself up." He gestured to his scars, "and I punished myself for that." 

"So, you avoided me to keep me safe?" 

"Yes." He cast a relieved look at Holly hopeful that she'd caught onto his intentions. However, the expression on her face was neutral, she gave none of her internal thoughts away. She didn't speak the fact that she would have been a hundred times better off around a werewolf than the Dursley's. Or that she was quietly furious at Remus for not taking her from that. The fury fought in her chest against the relief that Remus was family. 

She might not have had him before, but she had him now. Hopefully she could trust him with the secret of where she was living during the summer. 

"But when I felt the wolf's fear when the boggart stood before you…" Remus closed his eyes painfully, and she leaned forward, hoping when he opened them, she could see them, "I thought… maybe you'd give me a chance." 

"I would?" Holly blinked in surprise, recoiling slightly, and Remus nodded. Finally, he turned and looked at her.

"Will you allow me to be in your life, Holly?" 

Holly hummed slightly, staring into the molten gold eyes, wondering who or what was really in control of Remus Lupin. The meek professor present for every moment before had brown eyes, just brown. The only other time she'd seen gold was when he'd been between her and the boggart when he'd had full fangs in his mouth. Hermione and Ron both claimed to not have seen the color, too focused on the boggart and Holly's distress to notice it. But she wasn't mistaken, the color was gold.

She had the sudden feeling that she was looking not at the man, but the wolf. 

Holly, however, was willing to give a relationship with Lupin a shot, even if he was a wolf. However, she had one crucial question for him before she did. And that was namely, what did he know about Peter Pettigrew? 

She opened her mouth to ask- and a feeling of dread crept up her spine. Like her magic was warning her of something. Holly gasped in alarm had automatically reached for her chest even if she felt no pain.

Something was wrong.

"Cub?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Figuring out a Patronus to match Shanks was a huge problem I swear. Looking at animal symbolism I settled on a Hyena for the time being. If you guys have different ideas I'd love to hear them... and well, for Ace and Nami too actually, that would be a huge help <3 
> 
> For those who thought Holly would have a relaxed year with Peter gone, you're right! Shanks is now the one with problems for the end of third year >:) 
> 
> (and yes I moved the boggart class to the end of the year, I'm allowed!)


End file.
